Archive for the ‘Morgan Dollar’ Category

The Biography of the Morgan Silver Dollar

Article by Lorelei Lissor

The U.S. Mint's 1878-1921 Morgan dollar remains undoubtedly the most famous and collected classic silver dollar worldwide. How did this masterpiece of American minting emerge?

Interestingly, the coin sprang from a period of great financial instability in America, the Long Depression that began with the Panic of 1873 and continued until 1879, the year after the Morgan dollar's introduction. One cause of the financial catastrophe was the 1873 Coinage Act, called "the Crime of '73," which demonetized silver and temporarily ended the production of silver coins for the American economy. Combined with the failure of a major American railroad, "tight money" quickly led many overleveraged investors and companies into bankruptcy and Wall Street into chaos. When the Depression wore on and public outcries increased over joblessness, Congress finally authorized new circulating silver coinage, the largest of which was the magnificent Morgan silver dollar. As millions flowed into commerce in 1878, the Depression began to allay, partly the result of fresh hard-asset silver money in the system. Morgan dollars were packed with precious silver from the great Western mines, a vast source of national wealth. At the time, just one was the daily pay for cowboys, railroad builders and many industrial workers.

Designed by a Young Apprentice at the Philadelphia Mint

The Morgan is named after its creator, George T. Morgan. Born in England in 1845, Morgan trained at the London Mint and absorbed the finest European traditions of coin engraving. He was accepted as an apprentice at the principal Philadelphia Mint in 1877 and his superlative designs for a new U.S. silver dollar won out over the existing Chief Engraver's. The famous Philadelphia portrait painter Thomas Eakins (later to be regarded as the nation's finest artist of the period) recommended a 17-year-old schoolteacher named Anna Williams to be Morgan's model for his Liberty personification. His beautifully sculpted Liberty Head wears a tiara inscribed "LIBERTY" holding wheat of the North and cotton of the South (symbolizing the coming together of the nation after the Civil War) and a liberty cap (the traditional emblem of hard-won freedom).

For the American Eagle reverse, Morgan carefully worked from a stuffed eagle at the Philadelphia Mint and achieved superbly realistic detailing. His original design showed seven tail feathers, but the Mint Director requested another to fill out the look. However, upon the Morgan dollar's release into commerce, ornithologists objected that eagles always have center tail feathers, so Morgan reverted to his original odd-numbered tail design later in 1878. The eagle clutches arrows of preparedness and an olive branch of peaceful intent. Surrounding the eagle is a large laurel wreath, honoring the nation's greatness. The inscription "In God We Trust" (which began on U.S. coinage during the Civil War) is inscribed in Old English script.

The Ups and Downs of Morgan Dollar Mintages

As the production of the Western silver mines peaked in the 1880's, so did the output of Morgan silver dollars in that decade. When the principal silver mines were largely exhausted, the output of Morgans declined sharply in 1890-1892, then plummeted in 1893-1895 after Congress repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. Popular agitation for greater silver minting (climaxing with Presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan's famous speech for silver at the 1896 Democratic Convention) led to increased Morgan dollar production in the late 1890's, early 1900's and through 1904, when the series was suspended by Congress. One final huge release of Morgan dollars came in 1921, before its successor the Peace silver dollar emerged later in that year.

In addition to being a lifeblood in commerce, many Morgan silver dollars were held in the U.S. Treasury as intrinsically valuable securities. However, the vast majority of those minted have been lost to history, when huge numbers were melted by the Treasury during the World Wars. Today their relative scarcity adds to their collecting appeal as a masterwork of the minting art.

About the Author

Lorelei Lissor is a Numismatist and coin expert at International Coins and Currency

Find More Morgan Dollar Articles

1889 Morgan Silver Dollar

George T. Morgan, coin designer

The 1889 Morgan Silver Dollar was one of many silver dollars that was designed by George T. Morgan and minted in the United States in the time span of 1878 to 1904. Morgan started his minting career as an assistant engraver and worked up to becoming a Chief Engraver. His excellent design skills kept him as Chief Engraver for eight years. Although his name is famous for many U.S. coins, he is most known for The Morgan Dollar.

Morgan Silver Dollars

Morgan Silver Dollars have become very popular with coin collectors and are still very sought after today. They are very sturdy and have help up through many years, as investments as well as collection items. Their durability is the result of the high amount of silver that goes into each coin, over 24 grams per coin. The Morgan Dollar is worth a lot more than its original value because of the high silver content. The content of the 1889 Morgan Dollar is .900 silver and .100 copper with a total weight of 26.73 grams.

The entire collection of Morgan Dollars was minted in five city mints: Carson City, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Denver and San Francisco. The mintmark can be found on the back of the coin right below the eagle\'s tail feathers. Each mintmark designated which city the dollar was minted in. For instance, "CC was for Carson City, O for New Orleans, D for Denver, etc." Although all of the Morgan Dollars have more value than their face value, the 1889 Morgan Silver Dollar has the most value and is the most sought after coin in the entire Morgan Dollar series. This is partly because of its connection to the west. Carson City had the lowest mintage so Carson City coins held the most value. The Morgan Silver Dollar is widely enjoyed and sought after because of its Western lore and explicit historical design. The silver that was used in its design was from the Comstock Lode, which reminded the people of the one of the great "silver strikes" in history.

Design of the Morgan Silver Dollar

The front of the 1889 Morgan Silver Dollar has Lady Liberty facing left. Circling around her is the date of the coin (on the bottom), the words "E Pluribus Unum" above her and the thirteen stars on both sides. The design of Lady Liberty is actually the result of sketch Morgan made of Anna Willess Williams, a Philadelphia schoolteacher. When "E Pluribus Unum" was first chosen to be used, it meant "Out of many, one". The reverse side of the 1889 Morgan Silver Dollar has a bald eagle sitting on a combination of branches and arrows with its wings spread out. A wreath surrounds part of the eagle and the words "In God we trust" are right above his head. The rim of the 1889 Morgan Silver Dollar has "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" on top and "ONE DOLLAR" on the bottom, with a star separating the two phrases. The bald eagle was not an instant hit with the public when it first came out, but they came to love this symbol.

Uncirculated MORGAN SILVER DOLLARS (1878 - 1904)

Brilliant Uncirculated Morgan Silver dollars, years and mints of our choice.

Price: $ 43.95

Related Morgan Dollar Products

Why Is the Carson City Morgan Dollar So Special? The Story

Carson City Morgan Silver Dollar – Silver, Gold and Government

The Morgan Silver Dollar was minted in 1878. It was issued for American commercial use, mostly as a trade dollar with the Orient. The dollar was continuously minted until 1904.

Carson City Nevada: A group of silver mine owners, led by Congressman Richard "Silver Dick" Bland formed a lobbying group who were able to pass legislation that made the U.S. Treasury their biggest customer.

The Comstock Lode, one of the greatest silver strikes in history, was discovered in Nevada in the late 1850s. The strike put downward pressure on silver prices worldwide. In 1878 Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act which required the Treasury Department to purchase large amounts of silver, and to strike it as coins. For reasons of economy, the Treasury chose to strike the silver as dollars (reference: Wikipedia).

In 1861 Carson City became the capital of the Nevada Territory and remained the seat of state government when Nevada joined the Union in 1864. The city was founded in 1858 by Abe Curry who later became one of the most influential personalities in the territory, mostly due to the town's riches derived from silver mining. During the "silver rush", the population of the Nevada mining district numbered in the tens of thousands, where the scarcity of hard money made routine financial transactions difficult. The silver was shipped (over the Sierra Nevada Mountains) to the US branch mint operating in San Francisco, and then back again after being converted to coinage. This practice was very expensive and risky, as the trails were closely patrolled by opportunistic thieves.

Nevada Territory mine owners petitioned Congress for a new branch mint in their vicinity. Legislation to establish a mint in the Nevada Territory was approved on March 3, 1863.  Abe Curry lobbied the government to choose Carson City as the site of the new mint. In September 1863, the federal government purchased Block 65 from private citizens in Carson City for the purpose of constructing the coining facility.

The very first Carson City Mint coin to debut was the 1870-CC Liberty Seated silver dollar.

Government and its impact on the Carson City Mint

In 1834, the US government established the value of silver and gold at a ratio of 16 to 1.
The government specified the weight of silver or gold to be coined into dollar value denominations of hard currency. Anyone could bring their bullion to the Mint and receive  coins in exchange for ounces of bullion. This practice set the price the government was willing to pay per troy ounce of silver and gold (1oz Gold = 16oz Silver = ).  

This practice worked well until the late 1840s and 1850s, when the supply of gold increased dramatically (during California's gold-rush), upsetting the existing gold-silver balance. Consequently, silver became more scarce relative to gold as silver sellers could sell 16 ounces of silver to private buyers(often foreigners), for more than one ounce of gold. As a result, they often preferred to sell their silver this way rather than take it to one of the US mints for conversion into coins.

As the prolific Comstock Lode (Nevada) and mines in Colorado dumped silver into the open market, this situation reversed itself. By the mid 1870s, private buyers were purchasing 16 ounces of silver for less than one ounce of gold.

Based on the Treasury's offer to buy silver at the ratio of 16 to 1, silver owners came to the Carson City Mint and other US mints demanding that their silver be coined into dollars. They discovered that Congress had already enacted the Coinage Act of 1873 which eliminated the silver dollar in effect, demonetizing silver.   The United States had committed to a gold standard only. Silver advocates denounced the law and managed to persuade Congress to pass the Bland-Allison Act in 1878.

Under the Bland-Allison act, the Treasury Dept was required to purchase to million of silver monthly and mint it into dollar coins in a quest to stabilize the price of silver at artificially high levels. The dollars were named after George T. Morgan, the designer of the new coin. Accordingly, large quantities of Morgan silver dollars were minted, but many did not circulate well, especially in Eastern States where silver was resented. Millions of the unused coins ended up in Treasury storage vaults for decades.

More politics

In 1884 Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected to the White House. In September 1885, Cleveland fired all mint employees and completely shut down the Carson City mint.

When Benjamin Harrison recaptured the presidency for the GOP in 1888, the Democratic appointees were replaced by Republicans. In 1889 the Carson City mint was allocated funds to resume coining operations.

The Bland-Allison Act was modified by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890. This act mandated the government's purchase of 4.5 million ounces of silver each month to be paid for with Treasury bonds redeemable in either gold or silver.

"Unexpectedly", in 1893 most bond holders redeemed their notes in gold, depleting the Treasury's gold reserve and throwing the entire country into a severe financial panic. This action led to the repeal of the Sherman Act and greatly slowed the production of silver dollars.

On June 1, 1893, Mint Director Robert Preston ordered coining operations at the Carson City Mint to be discontinued.  The bullion supply for silver dollars ran out in 1904 and minting of silver dollars ceased.
The Pittman Act of 1918 required the government to convert silver dollars into bullion and then create an equal number of new coins from the bullion.  More than 270 million silver dollars were melted down. Most of the coins were Carson City silver dollars.

To comply with the Pittman Act, production of the Morgan Silver Dollar resumed in 1921 for a brief period of time.  You'd think that would be the end of the story, but it's not. The Silver Act of 1942 resulted in the melting down of even more Morgan Silver Dollars.  In fact, it's estimated that more than 80% of the Morgan Silver Dollars that were produced are no longer in existence.

In 1962, the U.S. government began selling original Treasury bags containing 1,000 silver dollars for face value.  During the early 1970s, the General Services Administration packaged and sold off most of the remaining government-owned Morgans, many of which were minted in Carson City.

"The Morgan Dollar is a silver United States dollar coin. These silver dollars were minted from 1878 to 1904 and again for one more year in 1921. The Morgan Dollar is named after its designer, George T. Morgan, who designed the obverse and reverse of the coin. Morgan's monogram appears near Lady Liberty's neck on the obverse. This silver dollar was authorized by the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. It has a fineness of .900, giving a total silver content of 0.77344 troy ounces (24.057 grams) per coin"

Tr Cojoc

Related Morgan Dollar Articles

Morgan Dollar

The Morgan Dollar is a silver United States dollar coin. The dollars were minted from 1878 to 1904 and again for one more year in 1921. The Morgan Dollar is named after its designer, George T. Morgan, who designed the obverse and reverse of the coin. Morgan's monogram appears near Lady Liberty's neck on the obverse. The Morgan Dollar was authorized by the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. It has a fineness of .900, giving a total silver content of 0.77344 troy ounces (24.057 grams) per coin.

History

The Comstock Lode, the greatest silver strike in history, was discovered in Nevada in the late 1850s. The strike put downward pressure on silver prices worldwide. The greatest silver strike in history was followed by the greatest coinage boondoggle in history. In 1878, to protect the interest of the western states, Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act which required the Treasury Department to purchase large amounts of silver, and to strike it as coins. For reasons of economy, the Treasury chose to strike the silver as dollars. The mintage was far more than was needed in circulation. These excess silver dollars quickly began piling up. Some original mint bags of Morgan Dollar remained in treasury vaults until the 1960s. This strange past has led to one of the greatest collectible series in American coins providing collectors with many dates and mint marks readily obtainable in mint state condition along with challenging rarities.

When the dollar was minted in 1878, it was the first dollar issued for American commercial use since the last Seated Liberty Dollar of 1873. The Trade Dollar was minted during this time period but was for trade in the orient. The dollar was continuously minted until 1904 when the supply of dollars in circulation was high and there was an absence of silver bullion. Then in 1918, the Pittman Act called for over 270 million coins to be melted for silver content. In 1921, the coinage of the Morgan Dollar resumed for that year and was replaced by the Peace Dollar commemorative that would become standard issue. Since 1921, many Morgan Dollar have been melted, mostly when silver prices escalate and they yield silver bullion.

Caches of Morgan Dollar produced at the Carson City Mint were discovered and were sold to coin collectors by the federal government in the early 1970s. These dollars were uncirculated and are called GSAs (named after the General Services Administration) and come in holds that mimic the holds used for proof silver Eisenhower dollars.
Rare Coin Site

Related Morgan Dollar Articles