Gobrecht Dollars

1838 Gobrecht Dollar
26.730 grams; .900 silver; 39 mm

Extremely rare U.S. Gobrecht dollars (silver dollars; 1836-39) at Mintmark.com; includes patterns and restrikes (1850s-70s).

"The Gobrecht Dollar was an American dollar coin that was minted in [extremely] small quantities from 1836 to 1839. It is named for its designer, U.S. Mint engraver Christian Gobrecht. The obverse design of the Gobrecht dollar is virtually identical to that of the Seated Liberty coinage that was introduced starting in 1837. As on the other Seated Liberty coins, the main motif was a figure of the goddess Liberty clad in a flowing dress and seated upon a rock. The left hand bore a pole topped with a liberty cap, a symbol of freedom. The right hand held a shield inscribed with the word LIBERTY. Early versions of the Gobrecht dollar contained a small banner reading C. GOBRECHT F. below the figure. This credit, however, was considered to be too prominent, and does not appear in later revisions or in the other forms of Seated Liberty coinage. The coin's date is centered along the bottom edge. The reverse design features a bald eagle in flight, which closely resembles that later used on the obverse of the Flying Eagle cent. On some versions, the eagle is surrounded with a field of stars. The inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA appears in a semicircular arc above the eagle, and ONE DOLLAR below it. The Gobrecht Dollar was a product of the suspension of silver dollar coinage being lifted in 1831 (see Bust Dollar for more information). The coin features the first incarnation of the seated liberty obverse which would become standard on all silver issues in 1839. The Gobrechts were subject to sparse and irregular minting. The 1836 circulated variety is the only solid mintage figure with a minting of 1600 coins. This makes the Gobrecht Dollar one of the most expensive dollar type coins in United States coinage. Since they have the same obverse, these coins are often paired with the Seated Liberty Dollar which preceded these. Restrikes of these coins were made into the 1870s to please collectors. These restrikes are also rare and sparsely minted coins. These restrikes tend to be worth [considerably] more than the regular issue coins minted in 1836 . . . [all Gobrechts were minted at Philadelphia]" — Gobrecht Dollar at Wikipedia. This version was edited and (or) revised by Mintmark.com

"In 1954 Walter Breen published The Secret History of the Gobrecht Coinages 1836-1840, which is still useful today. The final sentence in this work is perhaps prophetic in that it says It is safe to say that the last word on these has yet to be written . . . Prior to 1954, Gobrecht dollars were thought of simply as pattern coins and not regular issues. Breen’s monograph changed collector perception of the Gobrecht dollars and they became more popular. Perception changed again in the 1970s with two publications. The first was Breen’s 1977 catalog of proof coins and the second was a 1978 series of articles that appeared in Coins Magazine. Breen showed that the way to distinguish a restrike Gobrecht dollar from an original was relatively simple: when the coin was rotated on either the horizontal or vertical axis the eagle had to be flying upwards at an angle of roughly 30 degrees. (The rotation on the vertical axis—medal turn—applies only to the special coinage of March 1837 when the dies of 1836 were used.) . . ." — Numismatic News

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