2174

1873 Pat. T$1. Silver, reeded edge J-1315 NGC PF64 CAM

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:2,250.00 USD Estimated At:4,500.00 - 5,500.00 USD
1873 Pat. T$1. Silver, reeded edge J-1315 NGC PF64 CAM
Light milky surfaces with frosty white cameos. The petite seated figure of Liberty by Alexis Bailly, this is a very choice, well struck example with only slight softness on the eagle and along Liberty's leg where the two dies failed to impress their design completely. A splendid Pattern Trade Dollar.

A diversity of trade dollar patterns appeared in 1873. Certain of these, Nos. 1276, 1281, 1293, 1310, 1315 and 1322, were issued as sets by the mint. It is estimated that about fifty sets were struck.

Under date of July 11, 1873, Superintendent of the Mint, James Pollock, wrote Dr. Linderman as follows: . . . "I send you specimen of trade dollar in tin struck today. We will commence the regular coinage of trade $ in a few hours. The enclosed will give you a tolerably correct idea of the silver dollar."

Joseph Alexis. Bailly, who has been chronicled but lightly in the annals of American numismatics, is the putative designer of certain 1873 pattern trade dollar dies and 1874 twenty-cent patterns, following a commission by Mint Director James Pollock, although such dies are not signed by him. An examination of such dies suggests that if Bailly did the work, it only related to the obverse motifs of Miss Liberty, not to the creation of the complete die elements.

Bailly was born in Paris on January 21, 1823. He sculpted statues of several famous Americans including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and U.S. Grant. At the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876, his equestrian statue of President Guzman Blanco on Venezuela was on view, after which it was removed to Caracas, the location of another Bailly statue of the same man. Bailly's death occurred in Philadelphia on June 15, 1883. (#61601)