1859-S Liberty Seated 50c

Wiley – Bugert 6 : Centered date, Medium S mintmark.

Remarkably, this was one of two superb 1859-S Liberty Seated Halves included in the Eliasberg Collection. This, the “Medium S” version, was lot 1980 and sold at $50,600, while lot 1981, with a “Large S” Mintmark reverse, Wiley – Bugert 2, brought slightly more at $52,800. Both were catalogued as “Believed Finest Known by Far!”.

When Bowers and Merena sold this coin in 1997, it was catalogued as from the John G. Mills collection sold by brothers Samuel Hudson and Henry Chapman in April 1904. With a little help from the Newman Numismatic Portal, we can see that Mills lot 922 was was noted as “Davis Coll. 691”. One more search and we have the Robert Coulton Davis collection sold in January 1890, where lot 691 is catalogued under half dollars as “1859 S mint: small s: sharp and uncirc.; rare”. Furthermore, Davis lot 690 above is also an 1859-S Half Dollar, but of the Large S variety, and also noted as sharp and uncirculated. Eliasberg:1981 was catalogued as from the Harlan P Smith collection sold by the Chapmans in 1906. While Smith was not as meticulous a record keeper as Davis, it is possible that both exceptional 1859-S Liberty Seated Halves originated from the collection of Robert Coulton Davis in 1890, sold to two different buyers, John G. Mills and Harlan P. Smith, and were reunited in the Clapp collection by 1906 that was then sold to Eliasberg in 1942. If it exists, a named copy of the 1890 Davis sale would provide a definitive answer.

My 1997 Eliasberg notes graded this coin as MS67, and lot 1981 as MS66 and “not quite the luster of #1980”. Today, both coins have been certified by PCGS as MS68, Eliasberg:1981 Large S as #05651271. However, only Eliasberg:1980 Medium S is included in the CAC Census.

For the entire No Motto Liberty Seated Half Dollar type, PCGS has certified only two coins as MS68, these two Eliasberg 1859-S Halves. Of these, only this coin has also been approved as MS68 by CAC as the pinnacle and lone PCGS/CAC MS68 of the type. The surfaces are glistening with mint frost and near fully brilliant but for a blush of light golden toning, mostly at the lower obverse. The strike is unforgiving, with Liberty’s hair finely delineated, her sandal straps complete, and the stars all sharp to their centers but for a few of the first stars at left. Catalogued as a “Remarkable Gem” in 1997, that opinion is still nearly universal today.

PCGS #31080515

Provenance

Robert Coulton Davis; New York Coin & Stamp Co. and Bangs & Co. Auctioneers, January 1890, lot 691 at $1.70; John G. Mills Collection; S.H & H. Chapman, April 1904, lot 922 at $1.50 to J.M. Clapp; John H. Clapp; Stack’s, private sale, 1942 to Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr.; Bowers and Merena, April 1997, lot 1980 at $50,600; later Stack’s Bowers, June 2014, lot 1438 at $82,250 as PCGS/CAC MS68 #31080515; later to “The Black Cat Collection” by William Anderson.