LOT Superior Galleries  /  SGBH Pre-Long Beach Elite Coin Auction  / 

784

1880 Liberty Seated Half Dollar MS67PL

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:3,000.00 USD Estimated At:12,000.00 - 16,000.00 USD
1880 Liberty Seated Half Dollar MS67PL
Pop: 1, the finest certified, the only Prooflike of this quality. Total of 7 non-prooflike MS67 examples graded. The Philadelphia Mint used one obverse and two reverse dies to deliver a meager 8,400 business strike Half Dollars in 1880. We can say without hesitation that every feature on the obverse and reverse of this coin exhibits razor sharp striking detail. In fact, the devices as well as the stars and legends are incredibly bold. And while some 1880 half dollars in mint state display a semi-prooflike characteristic, a fully prooflike that it graded as such, with completely untoned finish that is readily evident at direct angles, and the surfaces free of all but the most trivial disturbance, is an incredible rarity! Despite a limited original mintage, the 1880 is not a particularly rare coin in an absolute sense, nor are "average" Mint States such that you have to mortgage your mother-in-law to afford one. On the other hand, precious few of the Mint State survivors that were preserved at the time of issue have survived with surfaces that are pristine enough to warrant an MS67 designation. And only this single example has the "prooflike" descriptor as part of its grade! (Descriptor: yes, it is in some but not all dictionaries, and means "a word, phrase, or alphanumeric character used to identify an item in an information storage and retrieval system" which perfectly applies to the grading services' identifying system for rare or unique coins.) The "descriptor" that collectors need to concern themselves with are two, the first being the aforementioned grade of MS67, and the second, the highly respected "Prooflike."

Okay, then, what happened to make these seated Liberty halves the low mintage rarities they are? There was an enormous expansion of silver coinage in the mid-1870s. Then, as occasionally happened in the days of the bimetallic silver and gold standard, toward the latter part of 1877, vast numbers of previously exported silver coins began returning to the United States from abroad. These came principally from Central America and Canada. Tens of millions of coins (worth perhaps as much as $30 million in the estimate of Robert W. Julian) returned like a whirlwind from the past. This vast "inpouring" continued well into 1880, much to the amazement of the Treasury department, bankers whose tills began to fill with the silver coins, and numismatic observers.

According to Julian, silver miners and their political partners were not only amazed by the unexpected inflow, but were infuriated, because the mints were no longer buying silver for minor coinage, no longer giving them subsidized profits. There was no demand for such coinage and the channels of trade were clogged with it. Because there was little inflation in the prices paid for goods and services with the added coinage, the long suffering farmers were not helped.

In response to this inpouring of silver coins, the Treasury ordered the suspension of minor silver coinage in early 1878 and did not resume it for some years because of the accumulation in the Treasury. It is Julian's contention that contrary to popular belief, the coinage of Morgan dollars had nothing to do with the interdiction of subsidiary silver mintage in the years 1879-90. This remarkable 1880 Mint State 67 Prooflike is a legacy of that era, a wonderful reminder for bidders of the times long ago which provided the foundation for the American empire that later develop.

Sign In to Bookmark Lot