Lot 1664
1889 Liberty Seated Quarter Dollar. PCGS graded MS-68. A white gem. Pop 1; finest graded by PCGS. For the collector who wants the finest. A sparkling, satiny gem with intense cartwheel luster on faint champagne gold surfaces (PCGS # 5522) .
There was an enormous expansion of silver coinage in the mid-1870s. Then, toward the latter part of 1877 vast numbers of previously exported silver coins began returning to the United States from abroad, 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 the 1880s, much to the amazement of observers.
According to Julian, silver miners and their political partners were not only amazed by the unexpected inflow, but were enraged, because the mints were no longer buying silver for minor coinage. There was no demand for such coinage and the channels of trade were clogged with it. Because there was no inflation in prices paid for goods and services with the added coinage, the long suffering the farmers were not helped.
In response to this inpouring, 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.
Estimated Value $16,000 - 19,000.
|
| |
| Unsold |
