Lot 3293
1873 Pattern Trade Dollar. Silver, reeded edge. . J-1315. . P-1458. PCGS graded Proof 64. Beautiful natural multi-color toning. Heavenly blue toning at the rim with what seems like a warm golden orange sunrise outlining Liberty on the obverse of this majestic specimen. What eye-candy! What a glorious example of one of the more beautiful Patterns for a Trade dollar. This is the petite figure of Liberty designed by Joseph Bailly. The artist posed his design seated facing left, the right hand supports a liberty cap on a pole and the left rests on a globe inscribed LIBERTY; behind is a wheat sheaf and in front are two bales of cotton on which rests a tobacco plant. For the reverse, it is believed another engraver, not Bailly, used a small eagle standing on a shield with wings raised and beak thrust defiantly forward; three arrows in the left talon and an olive branch in the right. The statutory mottos and legends around.
Joseph Alexis Bailly, who has been chronicled but lightly in the annals of American numismatics, is the putative designer of certain 1873 pattern trade dollar dies and 1874 twenty-cent patterns, following a commission by Mint Director James Pollock, although such dies are not signed by him. An examination of such dies suggests that if Bailly did the work, it only related to the obverse motifs of Miss Liberty, not to the creation of the complete die elements. Pop 12; 1 better in 65. (PCGS # 61601) .
Estimated Value $5,000 - 5,500.
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