1857-S Seated Liberty Half Dollar
Circulation strike struck at the San Francisco Mint · 158,000 made
- Mintage
- 158,000
- Metal
- 90% silver, 10% copper
- Weight
- 12.44 g
- Diameter
- 30.6 mm
Original illustration. Tap to flip. Not a photograph of the actual coin.
Face value · Metal value · Small premium · Collector premium · Significant rarity. We use bands because prices change daily.
What is an 1857-S Seated Liberty Half Dollar worth?
This is one of the dates collectors hunt for. A genuine 1857-S is valuable in any condition, even well worn. That's exactly why fakes and altered coins turn up so often.
What would make yours worth more:
- Uncirculated condition with full original luster
- A die variety or minting error
- Certification by PCGS or NGC, which buyers expect for scarce dates
For market prices, check recent sold results for certified coins in the same grade.
Quick answers
- Is the 1857-S Seated Liberty Half Dollar rare?
- Yes. Only 158,000 were made, 26th lowest of the 116 regular issues in the series.
- Is the 1857-S Seated Liberty Half Dollar silver?
- Yes. It's 90% silver, 10% copper and holds 0.3600 troy ounces of pure silver.
- Where is the mint mark on an 1857 Seated Liberty Half Dollar?
- On the reverse, below the eagle. Philadelphia halves have no mint mark. On this coin the mark is S, for San Francisco.
- Which San Francisco dates near 1857 are scarcer?
- The 1855-S at 129,950. So the 1857-S is on the scarcer side for those years.
- How many 1857-S Seated Liberty Half Dollar coins were made?
- 158,000.
What to check on your 1857-S
- Make sure the mint mark really is an S. A worn or filled mark can be misread. It's what separates your coin from the 1857-O (818,000 made).
- Check the date and mint mark under magnification for tooling or added letters. Scarce dates are the ones forgers alter.
- Don't clean it. Cleaning leaves fine scratches and an unnatural shine that collectors avoid.
- Old coins pick up damage over a long life. Look for holes, bends, scratches or signs of cleaning before you judge the grade, because a damaged coin sells for a fraction of a problem-free one.
- Judge the grade under good light. LIBERTY on the shield is the benchmark for Fine. Check the high points of Liberty's knees and breast.
Never clean it. Collectors pay strong premiums for original surfaces and natural toning on a date like this. A cleaned coin can lose half its value or more. Low-mintage dates attract altered and counterfeit coins. Check that the mint mark and date have not been tooled or added, or buy one already certified by PCGS or NGC.
The story of the 1857-S
Output at San Francisco slipped to 158,000 in 1857, from 211,000 the year before. In 1858 the figure was 476,000.
The other mints made far more that year: 1857 alone came to 2 million, roughly 13 for every 1857-S. If you're checking a pile of 1857 coins, the S is the one to look for. In the whole series, its mintage sits closest to the 1871-CC (153,950) and the 1852-O (144,000).
Across San Francisco's 26 Seated Liberty Half Dollar issues, the hardest to find is the 1873-S, No Arrows with 5,000 made. The 1857-S is on the scarcer side of the middle. Within the 1850s it's 5th smallest of 26, between the 1852-O (144,000) and the 1851 (200,750).
Peak branch output and the 1861-O (1856 to 1865)
With the arrows gone, halves were struck in large numbers. New Orleans reached 7,294,000 in 1858. San Francisco's early halves, such as the 1856-S and 1857-S, are scarce in better grades. In 1861 New Orleans struck 2,532,633 halves under three authorities: the United States, the State of Louisiana and the Confederacy. Specialists use die markers to tell which authority struck a given coin. Four halves were also made with a Confederate reverse design.
During the Civil War silver disappeared from eastern circulation. Philadelphia mintages fell to between about 250,000 and 512,000 a year from 1862 to 1865. San Francisco, where coins still passed at face, struck more halves than Philadelphia in most of those years. Worn wartime Philadelphia halves are harder to find than their mintages suggest because many were melted later.
Elsewhere in US coinage in 1857
The Act of February 21, 1857 ended the large cent and the half cent and introduced the small copper-nickel Flying Eagle cent. The same law ended the legal tender status of foreign coins, so Spanish and Mexican silver could be traded in for new US coins.
How to recognize it
Liberty sits on a rock holding a shield inscribed LIBERTY and a pole topped with a liberty cap, with 13 stars around her and the date below. The reverse shows an eagle with HALF DOL. below. Arrows beside the date (1853 to 1855 and 1873 to 1874) and rays around the eagle (1853) mark weight changes and IN GOD WE TRUST appears above the eagle from 1866.
Mintage chart
Specifications
| Series | Seated Liberty Half Dollar (1839–1891) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1857 |
| Mint | San Francisco Mint |
| Mint mark | "S" |
| Strike type | Circulation strike |
| Mintage | 158,000 |
| Face value | 50¢ |
| Composition | 90% silver, 10% copper |
| Weight | 12.44 grams |
| Diameter | 30.6 mm |
| Edge | Reeded |
| Silver content | 0.3600 troy oz (11.196 g) |
| Designer | Christian Gobrecht |
Other 1857 Seated Liberty Half Dollar issues
| Coin | Mintage | Type | Silver |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1857 Seated Liberty Half Dollar | 1,988,000 | Circulation strike | 0.3600 oz |
| 1857-S Seated Liberty Half Dollar | 158,000 | Circulation strike | 0.3600 oz |
| 1857-O Seated Liberty Half Dollar | 818,000 | Circulation strike | 0.3600 oz |
Mintage: United States half dollar mintage figures (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0), compiled from US Mint records and the Guide Book of United States Coins. How we build these pages.