Looking for some insight on this 1851-O Seated Liberty Dollar a friend of minefound metal detecting at an old homestead. I pulled up mintages for this year and it is showing it as "Unique". Thanks!
I'll second that Red book has no listing for an 1851-o But 1851 dollars are quite rare (1300 mintage) Edit: Lotsa fake seated dollars out there.
They suspect that one 1851-O was struck years later by combining different dies. This one does not look like that. It this was a genuine seated Liberty dollar at some point, then the date has been altered. The date looks off to me anyway.
I see no casting bubbles and as long as you trust your friend to have actually dug it metal detecting, then the next step is to have it authenticated plus weigh it. Abnormal wear on the obverse may be because it may have been a good luck pocket piece and simply rubbed a lot. But I am surprised there is not more going on with either side having been buried. Many fakes out there but the wear seems to say otherwise. And yes, I know these can be faked as to wear but this looks like genuine wear. Just my thoughts, I'm not an expert by any means. Plus as Yankee says & there may have been a few that escaped the records books and were made but never disclosed.
Could this be a restrike? This comes from the NGC website. "During the period of restriking in the U.S. Mint under James Ross Snowden's tenure, 1858-60, surely none of the pieces created for collectors are more enigmatic than the proof 1851-O dollar"
The only known 1851-O seated dollar is thought to have been mistakenly made and the O mint mark is virtually non existent. The theory is that the mint employee that created the dollar tried to remove the O rather than create an unknown coin. Though their efforts were not good enough to completely remove the mint mark, it is tough to see it. Coinfacts images.
This thread becomes increasingly more interesting. Even though there are none listed in most guides, it would be hypothetically possible that more than just the one in Kirkuleez photo actually exists. Let's face it, the control systems back in the 1800's might very well have allowed this to happen. The Mint could not keep track of the aluminum test cents that went to Congress, why could this not happen back then? And if this were not authorized would it not become, or still be, the property of the government, any of them for that matter?