Liberty Seated Dollars Mintage
Once again silver dollars were issued for circulation with the start of the series of Liberty Seated Dollars. Mintages were impacted at one point by the rising price of silver, which made the coins melt value exceed their face value. For two years, just over 1,000 silver dollars were struck, and instead the US Mint produced more than one million of the newly introduced gold dollars.
First struck in 1840, the Liberty Seated Dollars carried the new composition of 90% silver and 10% copper that had been adopted for silver coins during the interim. Production would continue until the enactment of the Mint Act of 1873. In addition to the Philadelphia Mint, the mint facilities at New Orleans, San Francisco, and Carson City would also strike the silver dollars.