1866 Silver Dollar - 1866 Seated S$1 Motto PCGS PF64. This bold, Choice proof 1866 Seated Dollar has attractive light devices and blue-grey toning in its fields. This 1866 Seated Dollar piece is sharply struck, as expected for a proof coin. Unlike many proofs of the era that were extensively cleaned and are dull or grainy with many hairlines, this piece has excellent eye-appeal and virtually no hairlines visible without magnification. Contact marks are also minimal for the grade.

Both before and during the Civil War almost a dozen Protestant denominations pressured Congress to add references to God to the Constitution and other government documents. Reverend Mark Richards Watkinson was the first to write to Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase to request that Gods name be added to our coinage. His suggestion for a motto was God, Liberty, Law. Chase ordered Mint Director James Pollock to prepare a suitable motto. Pollocks suggestions included Our Trust Is In God, Our God And Our Country, and God Our Trust. Then Chase decided on In God We Trust to be added to most of the nations coinage. This motto was a subtle reminder that the North considered itself on the side of God with regard to the issue of slavery. A new law was required to allow the motto to be added since previous acts of Congress specified the mottos and devices that were permitted on coins. The new motto was placed on all coins that were deemed large enough to accommodate it.

Christian Gobrecht designed the Seated Liberty dollar. The obverse depicts Liberty seated looking over her shoulder to the left. She balances the Union Shield inscribed LIBERTY with her right hand and holds a staff on which is placed a Phrygian cap in her left. There are seven stars to the left and six to the right interrupted by her head and the capped pole. The date is below. The reverse shows the heraldic eagle looking left. It is surrounded by the required inscription and the denomination written as ONE DOL. below. Dentils are around the periphery of both sides of the coin. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST is on a banner above the eagle.

With an original mintage of 725, the 1866 Proof dollar is rare in all conditions. In its population report, PCGS shows 31 in PF64 with 13 better.