This month we look atKevin Flynn's latest book,The Authoritative Referenceon Liberty SeatedDollars.Liberty Seated dollars in general are not aswell covered in the current literature as other denominationsof seated coinage. The reason is obvious- they are scarce, expensive, and variety collectingis not for the faint of wallet. It's not quite as severeas collecting double eagles by die variety, butyou get the idea.

By coincidence, I note that the current Heritagesale, the Spring ANA in Atlanta, features wellover a hundred Liberty Seated dollars, many ofthem damaged. I haven't seen the coins, or knowwho consigned them (perhaps one of our eagle-eyedE-Gobrecht readers can tell us), but this has thehallmarks of a die variety study. Problem coins are,of course, cheaper, and in many cases the researcherhas no choice - new varieties don't come in gradingsets where you get to pick and choose. This issometimes referred to as "taking one for the team,"i.e., you buy a coin you don't necessarily want becauseof the compulsion to complete the research.

Flynn's book does not go down thatpath. This is not an a detailed guide to Liberty Seateddollar die varieties. The grapevine indicates thatDick Osburn and Brian Cushing are busily engagedon that front, and we eagerly await the fruits of theirlabors. What we have here is rather a mixture oftopics. The most valuable contribution, and the reasonI bought the book, is the reproduction of U.S.Mint correspondence related to Liberty Seated coinage.This section (Appendix A) is fully one-third ofthe book, and with an 8.5x11 format using smallfont, you get a lot of bang for your buck. This presentsthe background on the origin and evolution ofseated coinage, and to have all this material gatheredtogether in one place is worth the price of admission.

Flynn has included an analysis of doubledobverse and reverse dies, as well as misplaced andrepunched dates. The photography in this section ofthe book is well done and the features described arereadily visible. This is not like one of the math textbookswhere the writer says things like "it is clearthat...," when it is not clear at all, and especially notto the mathematically impaired like me. Flynnworked with institutional collections - the Smithsonianand the American Numismatic Society - to helpput this material together.

There are also specialized essays here fromother experts - John Dannreuther tackles the issue of1853 proof restrikes, while Ron Guth has written upthe so-called "1851-O" Liberty Seated dollar. Tothese "hot topics" Flynn adds additional sections onthe 1851 and 1852 restrikes, the 1866 no motto dollar,and the San Francisco issues of 1870 and 1873.

The weakest section of the book is the date-by-date analysis, which does not include much informationthat is not available elsewhere. If you areactively putting together a date and mintmark set ofLiberty Seated dollars, your best tools will be theHeritage auction prices archives, the PCGS andNGC population reports, and a good relationshipwith a dealer specializing in this area. On the otherhand, if you are interested in learning more of thebackground of Liberty Seated coinage, and in gettinga look at the original documents, this book belongsin your library.

To order your copy, contact Kevin Flynn atkevinj50@comcast.net.