| Description: |
An impressive cameo gem Proof example of the final date in the Liberty Seated dollar
series without the motto IN GOD WE TRUST in the design; the motto was added in 1866, and
continued in the design through the end of the series in 1873. Described in the Eliasberg
catalogue as "Champagne and light golden toning over deep mirror surfaces. A
fantastic specimen combining overall scarcity as a date with notable aesthetic quality and
rarity as a Proof. Here is a winner in every sense.” Fully six years later and we agree
with those remarks; some things go untouched by time. From a Proof mintage for the date of
500 pieces, all of which were distributed in the silver Proof sets of the date. Much of
the circulation strike mintage of the date is believed to have been sent to South America,
thus accounting for the rarity of the date in Uncirculated today. In his Silver Dollar
Encyclopedia, author Q. David Bowers noted the following: "As business strikes of the
1865 dollar are very rare, additional demand has developed for the Proofs, accounting for
the spirited competition when examples of this and other dates, especially of the later
no-motto years, 1861-1865, come up at auctions.” We certainly expect no less than
"spirited competition” as this impeccably pedigreed dollar crosses the auction
block!Some slight doubling is noted in the reverse legends, notably at the base of ONE
DOL, the period following, and the second A in AMERICAFrom Auctions by Bowers and Merena
Inc.’s sale of the Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. Collection, April 1997, Lot 2236. First
offered in Ed Frossard’s sale of the Edmund R. Wolcott Collection, May 1901; purchased
there by J.M. Clapp, perhaps to replace a coin bought from the Chapman brothers in
November 1893; from J.M Clapp to John H. Clapp to the Clapp Estate, to Louis E. Eliasberg,
Sr. in 1942. |
