The San Francisco Mint made more than 900,000 Liberty double eagles in 1884, but production was moderate to low. It hit rock bottom at Philadelphia, where just 71 pieces were struck, all proofs.

Important events were happening in the wider world:

• Grover Cleveland defeated James Blaine to become the nation’s 22nd President and the first democrat elected to that office prior to the Civil War.
• The Equal Rights Party nominated female candidates for president and vice president, even though women couldn’t vote.
• Susan B. Anthony appeared before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives to argue for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote.
• The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe’s Island in New York Harbor.
• Mississippi established the first state college for women.
• George Eastman patented paper-strip photographic film. It became the foundation of Eastman Kodak Company, which introduced photography to the masses.
• The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary was published. It contained entries from“A”to“Ant.”
• Tornadoes killed 800 people in seven Southern and Midwestern states.
• Construction began on Chicago’s first skyscraper. It was 10 stories high.
• Moses Fleetwood Walker became the first African American player in Major League Baseball. Walker, a catcher for the Toledo Blue Stockings, broke the color barrier 63 years before Jackie Robinson, but his feat – like much of baseball’s early history – is largely forgotten.

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