Silver Penny Mall

"History of the Silver Morgan Dollar

Perhaps no coin being collected today
conjures up visions of the old west like
the Morgan Dollar. Minted from 1878 to
1904 and then for one more year in 1921,
the changes that took place in America
during the span of the Morgan Dollar are
startling. And although collecting
Morgan Dollars is a favorite of most
collectors, the silver Morgan Dollar was
not that popular of a coin and ignored
by collectors for decades after its
demise. It was not until the early
1960?s that collecting Morgan Dollars
became popular. During this time silver
was near %1.29 per ounce. At that price,
the silver metal value of a silver
dollar was worth a dollar. During this
time many banks still had bags and rolls
of silver dollars and all one needed to
do was go down to the bank and ask for
them.

The Mint Act of April 2, 1792 provided
for decimal coinage. The largest being
the dollar, or 100 cents. From the first
few thousand dollar coins weakly stuck
in 1794 and the many more through 1873,
the dollar enjoyed moderate success.
Dollars were coined on and off until the
Coinage Act of 1873 eliminated the
dollar and put in its place a slightly
larger dollar called the Trade Dollar.
The Trade Dollar was produced with the
intent to export it for trade with
China. As such, very few made it into
general circulation in the US.
Meanwhile, the silver mining industry in
the west had fallen on hard times. As is
the case even today, industries in
trouble look to the US government for
help and the silver industry was no
exception. An idea was put forward that
the US government buy silver bullion for
its own account to help support the
market. Embracing this cause in the
mid-1870?s was Representative Richard P.
(?Silver Dick?) Bland of Missouri. Other
politicians jumped on the bandwagon with
the thought that a strong silver market
would benefit everyone west of the
Mississippi. After much discussion and
debate, the Bland-Allison Act was passed
on February 28th, 1878. The legislation
was initially vetoed by President
Rutherford B. Hayes but congress
overrode the veto putting a new law in
the books. The legislation dictated that
the US government purchase %2,000,000 to
%4,000,000 a month in silver bullion
with the specific purpose to convert the
silver into standard silver dollars (90%PRCTG%
silver and 10%PRCTG% copper). At the time,
silver was around %1.00 per ounce. At
that price, the government was
purchasing millions of ounces of silver
each month.

Back in 1876, Mint Director Henry
Richard Linderman anticipated that
legislation would someday be passed to
create another circulating silver dollar
and had Chief Engraver William Barber
fiddle with a new designs. The legal
tender status of the Trade Dollar had
been revoked and the country was without
a dollar coin. Like today though, but
for different reasons, there was not a
demand for a silver dollar. In 1877, it
seemed like a sure thing that
legislation for a new silver dollar
would soon become a reality. A new
design was needed and Barber, assistant
engraver George T. Morgan and outside
artist Anthony Paquet went into high
gear producing several different
designs. On February 21st, 1878,
Linderman selected the design. Although
he thought Barber and Morgan had high
artistic taste, he selected the design
with the lowest relief requiring the
lowest power to strike. This of course
was the design created by Morgan. The
portrait was modeled after 19 year old
Miss Anna Willess Williams. Morgan had
previously used Miss Williams on several
pattern half dollars in 1877. Several
years later Charles Barber, son of
William Barber, would basically copy
this design for his own coin designs
which later became known as the Barber
Dime, Barber Quarter, and Barber Half.
He also ?designed? the Liberty Nickel.

Just a week after the passing of the
Bland-Allison Act, the first Morgan
dollars were coined on March 7th, 1878.
After several adjustments of the dies,
the Philadelphia mint cranked out the
first dollar coin. After close
examination of the coin, it was rejected
and sent to the melting room. The press
was then adjusted and 11 more coins were
produced. The last was rejected and this
coin was also sent to the melting room.
These first coins were struck on
polished planchets, removed by hand and
put in numbered envelopes with the
intent to deliver the first coin to the
President and the 2nd coin went to
Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman
and the 3rd to Linderman. After that,
the press began churning out 80 dollar
coins a minute. Within a few days,
several other presses would come online
and dies would be delivered to San
Francisco, New Orleans and Carson City.

As mentioned before, the purchasing
power of a dollar back in the 1880?s was
huge. Most transactions were completed
in smaller denominations as large
purchases were under a dollar.
Additionally, many people were still
bartering for goods (trading pigs for
chickens, etc). As such, the supply of
silver dollars far exceeded demand.
Incredibility, with this supply, The
Bland-Allison act was modified by the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act which
mandated the US Government purchase 4.5
million ounces of silver per month. The
hitch was that these purchases were to
be paid with Treasury bonds redeemable
in either gold or silver. Since gold was
seen as the more valued metal, most bond
holders redeemed them for gold which
depleted the Treasury?s gold supply
which then caused a financial panic
through the whole country in 1893. This
led to the repeal of the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act. The result was a massive
slowdown in silver dollar production for
the years of 1893, 1894 and 1895. Not
coincidently, these years also contain
some of the most elusive key dates.
Production picked back up in 1896 but it
would be a few years before production
went back above the 10,000,000 mark for
any individual mint. In 1904, the supply
of silver was exhausted and the Morgan
Dollar ceased production, or so it
seemed.

In 1918, Congress passed the Pittman Act
and recalled over 270 million silver
dollars for melting. Total mintage of
the entire series totaled nearly 657
million. If you subtract out the high
mintage 1921 dates of 86.7 million,
(these were made from the melted older
dollars), around 47%PRCTG% of Morgans dated
prior to 1921 were destroyed. These
silver dollars had been sitting in
Treasury vaults for years just
collecting dust. The provision of the
act, called for the recall of these
dollars for the purpose of making new
ones. So, in 1921, the Morgan dollar was
revived for one more year. Barber had
died four years before (February 18,
1917) and now George T Morgan was Chief
Engraver who you recall designed the
dollar. The Philadelphia mint made over
44 million, the highest number it had
ever made, while the San Francisco mint
made over 20 million, which was more
dollars in one year that it had ever
made. Also, this marked the only year
that the Denver mint made Morgan
Dollars. The New Orleans and Carson City
Mints had long ago ceased operations.
Later that year, the Peace Dollar would
permanently replace the Morgan Dollar.

With the paper dollar becoming more
popular for commerce, dollar coins
vanished from circulation and piled up
in bank vaults. More meltings occurred
due to the War Time Silver Act of 1942
and then in 1979-1980 when silver shot
up to near %50 per ounce. No doubt
millions of Morgans and Peace dollars
were melted. Today, it is estimated that
only 15-17%PRCTG% of all Morgan dollars
produced still exist. Taking this into
consideration, low mintage dates are
even scarcer than their mintage would
indicate making this a very desirable
coin to collect.

Ever Wonder how the Morgan Dollar Came About. Did you know
that this coin was not very popular, just like most dollar
coins, but is now one of the most desired collector coin?

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