1870-S

1870-S

General Comments

1870-S is the key date in the Liberty Seated Dollar series. Most collectors with average or even above average resources can never hope to own one. The mintage is unknown. No mint records have been found to confirm the number issued. Nine pieces have been confirmed. A tenth probably exists, and an eleventh is rumored to be in the lost cornerstone of the San Francisco mint. Assuming a mintage of at least 10 coins and certainly at most 25 or 30, the date ranks first or second in the Liberty Seated Dollar series, depending on whether the 1866 NO MOTTO is considered.

Mintage	Unknown
Proof mintage	None
Mintage ranking	2nd
Finest known	MS62
Known obverse dies	1
Known reverse dies	1
Known die marriages	1
Most common die marriage	OC-1/ R7-
Rarest die marriage	OC-1/ R7-

The finest known example is a PCGS MS62 that currently resides in the Legend Collection, now owned by Dell Loy Hansen. The known examples are listed below (reference 19).

Census Position	Description
1	James A. Stack Specimen, PCGS MS62
2	Norweb Specimen, PCGS AU58
3	Eliasberg Specimen, PCGS AU53
4	Ostheimer-Gardner Specimen, PCGS XF40
5	Quellar Specimen, NGC XF40
6	Schultz Specimen, PCGS VF25
7	Carter Specimen, VF
8	Eureka Specimen, F/VF scratched
9	Boyd Specimen, PCGS VF, tooled to remove initials

1870-S Die Marriages

A single die pair was used to strike all currently known 1870-S examples. The obverse die was one previously used in Carson City to strike 1870-CC die marriage OC-1. The mint had not provided obverse dies dated 1870 to San Francisco, so this obverse die was shipped from Carson City prior to the ceremony laying the symbolic cornerstone for the new San Francisco mint. The ceremony was held on May 25, 1870. The discovery this re-use of the 1870-CC obverse die was documented by the authors in an article in Issue #128 of the Gobrecht Journal, published in the spring of 2017 (reference 21).

The obverse die was polished prior to its use in San Francisco. Many of the die markers noted in our description of its use at Carson City were removed by the polishing. However, enough remained to make a positive identification. The findings that led to this conclusion were documented in our article in Issue #128 of the Gobrecht Journal, published in the spring of 2017 (reference 21). To our knowledge this is the only known example of a die being used at two different mints. The reverse die is unique to 1870-S. We have not found it in any other years. Some publications have speculated that the mintmark was engraved in the die. Our findings indicate that it was not only punched, but actually double-punched. This is discussed more in the next section.

Click the links below to view the details of the die marriage.

Die Marriage	Rarity	Obverse Die	Reverse Die	Estimated Survivors
OC-1	R7-	1870-CC 1	A	9-11

Photo credits:

All 1870-S photos: 1870-S PCGS XF40, ex. Gene Gardner, from the Heritage archives.

General Comments

1870-S Die Marriages

Die Marriage

Rarity

Obverse Die

Reverse Die

Estimated Survivors