Lot 1426
1864 Liberty Seated Dollar. PCGS graded Proof 64. Childs. A visual treat! Frosted eagle and Seated Liberty surrounded by deep mirror fields, creating the "floating effect" so sought by minters of the day. Only faint hairlines show in the color, the kind caused by delicate coins being turned on velvet pads, as was once the fashion of display (until slabbing threw velvet-pad makers into bankruptcy!). The color is a bright tawny gold enlivened on the obverse by splashes of vibrant iridescent blues. Oh sure, Seated dollar Proofs come technically closer to flawless than this one, but not many of them can claim such a colorful relief for the eye to enjoy.
Historical note: Perhaps a third of the Proofs of these war years seem to have survived in conditions warranting certification, according to the various Pop Reports at any rate. As we have said elsewhere, it was not the common man who was applying to the Mint to collect these. No, these were saved by the wealthy industrialists of the day, possibly using moneys gained by war profiteering to enjoy their various hobbies and luxurious lifestyles. These collectors were few and far between in 1864, no doubt about it. Meantime, the common man was dying by the thousands upon the fields of battle. Two of the worst conflicts of the entire Civil War, in point of fact, took place while this sort of coin was being made by gentle workers at the Philadelphia Mint for the pleasure of other gentlemen, of means. The first was at Spotsylvania, Virginia, starting on the 8th of May and ending four days later. Five days of fighting resulted in a stalemate, with the troops of both colors sunk in their trenches, too exhausted even to retrieve the dead and dying from the field, where the wounded lay moaning for days. General Grant now saw in Lee an opponent who would not give up. A month later, they faced each other again, this time at Cold Harbor, Virginia--possibly the most gruesome fight of the entire war. It was June 3rd and Lee's line was impregnable this time, Grant discovered while losing more than twelve thousand of his army on just this one day. Place the miraculous survival of this distinctive memento of those times--the ultimate symbol of Union strength--into this perspective, and those few hairlines become as nothing. It's the history that makes coins such as this precious and worth collecting. This wonderful coin has all the history you could want.
From the celebrated Walter H. Childs Collection, Bowers and Merena, August 30, 1999, lot 485.
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| Realized $6,900 |
