1870 Dollar Patterns

About This Coin

At the heart of William Barber's Standard Silver Patterns program, the 1870 Dollar Patterns represent the central denomination around which the entire unified design system was built. The proposed "Standard Silver Dollar" of reduced weight aimed to replace the Seated Liberty dollar with a coin whose silver content kept it in circulation rather than being hoarded or exported — the perennial problem plaguing American silver dollars since the 1790s. The obverse features the experimental designs serving as template for the multi-denomination family. A notable result of $55,000 in PR67 at Heritage Auctions demonstrates the premium superb examples command. These patterns are significant not only as design experiments but as physical evidence of the monetary debate culminating in the Coinage Act of 1873, which eliminated the standard silver dollar and established the Trade Dollar — a decision so controversial it became the "Crime of '73." The standard dollar concept represented an intermediate approach between the existing full-weight dollar and its eventual elimination, and these patterns preserve that policy option's tangible evidence.