Mintage of Seated Liberty's circa 1870-1890

[jimjum12]

Why is the mintage so low on so many of the Seated Liberty varieties in the 1870's to 1880's ? It's such a drop that there must be a reason. .... thanks in advance for any help with this. GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[RWB]

Excerpt from "From Mint to Mint" --

 

The collectors’ question for decades was – “Why mint only a few hundred coins for circulation?”

Here, in the 1887 Annual Report (page 6) in mint director James Kimball's words, is the most likely explanation. Note that we have documents supporting this same reasoning for 1931 cents and nickels, 1913 nickel changes from Ty-1 to Ty-2, etc.

 

“The gold coinage consisted of 3,724,720 pieces, of the value of $22,393,279, of which $22,280 (1,114) was in double eagles, $7,560,670 (756,067) in eagles, $14,800,375 (2,960,075) in half-eagles, $3,501 (1,167) in three dollar pieces, $260 (104) in quarter eagles, and $6,193 (6,193) in dollars. The gold coinage of the year for depositors was confined to eagles and half-eagles in the proportion of about two of the latter to one of the former. There was also executed the usual complemental [sic – complement of] coinage, consisting of all other coins of the series, in number sufficient to meet the public demand for proof sets and other cabinet purposes, and as many besides as were deemed enough to prevent overvaluation from immediate rarity….”

 

Even back then, the mint was sensitive to people speculating in new coins and the possible inadvertent creation of a rarity. This explanation was also presented by the Philadelphia Mint coiner with reference to production of gold dollars – most of which ended up in jewelry.

 

[DaveG]

Roger answered your question from one point of view, so I'll address your question from the other "end of the telescope" (if you will).

 

From the beginning of the Civil War, the Union and Confederacy issued lots and lots of paper money to finance the War. At the time paper money was viewed as an IOU and a substitute for "real money" (that is, gold and silver).

 

This flood of paper money drove up the price of gold and silver. Gold disappeared from circulation by late 1861 and silver disappeared from circulation by April 1862.

 

Many of the silver coins were shipped to Canada, the Caribbean and Latin America, where they circulated.

 

The US continued mainly to use paper money throughout the 1870s. However, by late 1878, the US economy has recovered enough from the Civil War to allow a return to the gold standard. (That is you could take a paper dollar to the bank and get a gold dollar for it without having to go to a gold broker and pay a premium in paper dollars for the gold coin.)

 

As a result of the improvement in the economy which led to the return to the gold standard, in the winter of 1877 the silver coins that had left the country during the Civil War were returned to the US (where they were worth more as coins than they were as bullion).

 

As a result, the channels of commerce in the US became flooded with silver coins and there was no way to return the coins to the Mint (without losing money), nor was there a Federal Reserve Bank to which to return the coins.

 

With so many silver coins now in circulation, there was little demand for new silver coins to be minted, so you have the low-mintage years of the 1880s.

 

And, as Roger has described, the Mint produced the modest mintages it did so as to minimize the ability of coin collectors to make profits speculating in "LQQK - ultra low mintage ultra modern coins!"

 

 

edited to: reflect comments by disme below.

[Gunny]

Good stuff. I learn something on this forum every day. Thanks.

[RWB]

Excellent comments, Dave!

[mumu]

The answer seems counter-intuitive. Less minted makes it harder to sell them as rarities? Obviously I get it makes it hard to have a market in them but dosnt that guarantee every single one would be hoarded?

[mkman123]

With how hard life was back then and how even a penny could buy something, I couldn't even imagine people could collect coins back then!

[DaveG]

mumu,

 

Because of the silver coin glut, the Mint didn't need to produce any coins (if you'll forgive the generalization).

 

However, the Mint did produce some coins, mostly for proof sets.

 

The Mint also produced a few hundred other examples of each coin so as to minimize speculation.

 

For example, let's say there were 100 collectors at the time. If the Mint had produced 50 examples of each coin, then 50 collectors would be chasing 0 coins - result: speculative profits.

 

Instead, the Mint produced 300 examples of each coin, so 200 coins would be chasing 0 collectors - result: little speculative profit.

 

edited to add: Of course, we can now say that this plan was somewhat flawed, as the silver coins of the 1880s are available these days almost entirely in relatively high grades - so the coins were put away almost immediately and stayed that way.

 

Of course, perhaps the Mint should have just produced another 100 or 200 examples of each coin. Who knows?

[disme]

The explanations here are generally correct except for some minor points:

 

1) The return of the silver coins that had gone abroad during the Civil War was during the

fall of 1877 and had nothing to do with the Gold Standard. This event, however was directly

responsible for the Bland-Allison Act of February 1878 creating the Morgan dollar.

 

2) Silver coins began returning to the marketplace during the summer and fall of 1873 and

by 1874 were in relatively widespread use. However, the public having become used to the

fractional paper, it was some time before the silver completely replaced the latter.

 

3) The low silver mintages after 1878 were at the request of Philadelphia Mint Superintendent

A. Loudon Snowden who did so to aid the collector of small means as well as those persons

wishing to obtain coins as Christmas presents or for birthdays..

[DaveG]

mkman123,

 

If you'll look in "Numismatic General", you'll find a Christmas Day post by leeg that shows the attendees at the 1908 ANA Convention - 30 people, including wives!

 

 

 

Roger,

 

I wrote an article about four years ago for The Gobrecht Journal that, in passing, summarized why the mintages of quarter and half dollars were so small in the 1880's. I'm pleased that I was able to remember so much of the material and present it in a coherent way!

[RWB]

Collectors of that era wanted proofs as being the best specimens available. They usually did not have both a proof and circulation coin for each year and denomination. Collectors with more money than most often acquired multiples and some simply hoarded new coins.

 

In general a proof coins was worth no more than a normal coin; and there was no deep commercialism that you see today. People collected for enjoyment, knowledge and as a way of making saving money more interesting.

 

[DaveG]

disme,

 

Thanks for pointing out my incorrect sentence about the Gold Standard. I mis-remembered the year that silver came back and will correct my original post to reflect that it was the improvement in the economy that led to the restoration of the Gold Standard and, in association, the return of the silver coins. (As we all recall, the potential restoration of the Gold Standard was argued about for several years prior to the passage of the appropriate legislation.)

 

I would have talked about the Comstock Lode and the resulting fall in the global price of silver and the demonetization of silver by the French and Germans, which exacerbated the decline in the price of silver, except that I wasn't sure it was germane to the OP's question and I'm saving it for my next article in The Gobrecht Journal, anyway.

 

 

edited to add:

[jimjum12]

......excellant, thank you all. A true wealth of knowledge here. GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

[Conder101]

Collectors of that era wanted proofs as being the best specimens available. They usually did not have both a proof and circulation coin for each year and denomination.

They also had no interest in mintmarks either so all they needed was one proof coin each year of whatever denominations they collected.