1861-S 50C Liberty Seated Half Dollar NGC MS64

Here is a rare and attractive piece to add to your collection. Liberty Seated halves are scarce in circulated condition and become quite rare in mint state grades. That is because Liberty Seated half dollars were employed in significant numbers in the China trade. 

Let’s take a look at some compelling circumstantial evidence. In 1861, the San Francisco Mint struck 939,500 half dollars. PCGS has graded 279 original examples, while NGC has graded 150 of them. The total of 429 represents a miniscule 0.0456 percent of the total mintage, suggesting that the vast majority of them indeed were shipped off to the Orient. NGC has graded 13 as MS64 with just 4 finer. Collectors Universe prices this issue at $8,000.00 in MS64.

A chopmarked 1857-S Liberty Seated half dollar, offering compelling evidence of such coins serving in the China trade. Photo: Heritage Auctions.

Bill Burgert, an authority on this series, writes, in his book, A Registry of Liberty Seated Half Dollar Varieties, Volume I, San Francisco Branch Mint (2009),  “Chopmarks can be … found stamped into Liberty Seated half dollars. The dates most often seen are the early to mid-1860’s from the San Francisco Mint. A few small hoards of chopmarked half dollars have surfaced and were dispersed over the years.”

In a 2008 article in Numismatic News, journalist Paul M. Green writes, “as the largest silver denomination in regular production in San Francisco, … half dollars were exported. We have proof as they were found in China and … had chopmarks from merchants there.” Green concludes, “the indication is very clear that San Francisco half dollars from 1860 through the early 1870s regularly sailed west to China and that makes their mintage suspect as indications of current availability.”