12
Dec

Series Facts: Morgan Dollars

Posted by Stella Admin

This is the first of a series of interesting facts about a specific U.S. series of coins or currency.  This week’s 10 facts are for Morgan Dollars, issued from 1878-1921, and the arguably the most collected of all U.S. coins.  Please log-in and add your interesting facts about this series as well!

1. The three lowest mintage dates (non-proof): 1893-S (77,000), 1894 (110,000) and 1885-CC (228,000).

2. The highest mintage proof issue is the 1880, with 1,355 minted.

3. Morgan dollars were minted at 5 Locations: Philadelphia, San Francisco, New Orleans, Denver and Carson City.

4. The largest mintage date is the 1921, with 89,730,000 coins isssued from the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco Mints combined. The next closest date in total mintage is the 1890, with 38,042,414 coins minted at Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco and Carson City combined.

5. A date set would only consist of 28 coins, very obtainable for the average collector.

6. No dollars were issued from 1905 through 1920.

7. The 1884-S is one of the more common dates in grades G-AU, selling for around $20 in VG and going to about $1100 in AU58. But the date jumps to over $5,000 in MS60!

8. There are 13 Carson City mint issues: 1878-1885 and 1889-1893, with the key being the 1889-CC which has a scant mintage of just 350,000 coins.

9. The designer of the Dollar was George T. Morgan, hence the name of the series. His initial is found on the neck and on the reverse on the left loop of the ribbon.

10. A powerful on-line source for more in-depth information about the Morgan dollar series by date can be found on Coinfacts.

(Sources referenced: 2008 Redbook of U.S. Coins by R.S. Yoeman.)

Category : Series Facts

4 Responses to “Series Facts: Morgan Dollars”


lsuandana December 15, 2008

Jack,

I also find it interesting that the “King of the Morgan Dollars” is usually thought to be the 1895 proof with 880 minted and none of the reported 12,000 business strikes ever reported. Still, in the last 5 years alone one large auction house has reported 40 examples sold in auction. While this may include a few “repeats” I view this as an indication that a high % of the 880 are still in existence. Would you agree and would you have a guess as to how many do exist? If so, would you alos agree that there are proof morgan dollars that are much rarer in actual numbers? Finally, how sure is it that all 12,000 business strikes are gone forever? Thanks for your thoughts on this always interesting-and expensive coin.

Jack Robinson December 16, 2008

It is an interesting thing about the allure of the 1895. I checked our sales records dating back to 1998 and we have handled 39 1895 proofs (Mintage 880) in grades from Proof 6 to proof 67. During the same time period we have only handled four 1878 7TF Reverse 78 proofs (mintage 250) , 16 1894 proofs (mintage 972), and only 15 1904 proofs (mintage 650). In my opinion the scarcity and desirability of the 1895 is simply due to the fact that a collector can only purchase this coin in proof, meaning only 880 collectors in the entire world can ever own one of these coins. When you consider the popularity of the series, this makes the coin truly the scarcest in the series. I think the good value in the proofs would be these other dates mentioned above as they have lower proof mintages and you actually see them on the market less than the 1895 (and the other dates cost less to obtain).
According to Q. David Bowers in his Morgan Silver Dollar book, he feels there were no business strikes produced and feels that “Today, most of the Proofs remain and are cherished by numismatists.” (p.222) I would certainly defer to Mr. Bower’s knowledge when it comes to numismatic history. I personally like the proof Morgans and find they sell rather quickly when we do have the opportunity to handle them. I would recommend any Morgan dollar collector to have at least one proof in their collection.



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