The Morgan Silver Dollar, 1878-1921
A Safe and Secure Way to Invest in America’s Most Popular Coin
Designed by Assistant Chief Engraver of the United States Mint George T. Morgan, the Silver Dollar that bears his name made its debut in 1878. The Morgan Dollar was the first Silver Dollar struck in the United States Mint since 1873. In that year, Congress passed the Mint Act of February 12 which, due to it unpopularity with the powerful silver lobby, has gone down in history as the “Crime of ’73.” The act suspended coinage of the standard Silver Dollar, replaced it with the slightly heavier Trade Dollar for export to the Orient and in effect placed the nation on the gold standard. As a result, the Gold Dollar became the standard monetary unit of the United States from early 1873 through early 1878.
On February 28, 1878, however, coinage of the standard Silver Dollar was revived through the Bland-Allison Act of February 28. Championed by U.S. Congressman Richard P. Bland, a Democrat from Missouri, and U.S. Senator William Boyd Allison, a Republican from Iowa, the Bland-Allison Act mandated that the federal government purchase vast quantities of silver from Western mine owners for coinage into Silver Dollars. The Mint adopted the new Morgan design to commence Silver Dollar coinage under the terms of the Bland-Allison Act.
Production of Morgan Dollars eventually took place at all five United States Mints that were operational at one time or another during the series’ long life from 1878 through 1921. Coinage was initially very heavy as the federal government acquired large amounts of bullion. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 replaced the Bland-Allison Act and also provided large quantities of bullion for coinage into Silver Dollars. The Sherman Act was repealed in 1893, however, and as the nation sank into an economic depression (the Panic of 1893) few Morgan Dollars were struck through 1895. Yearly mintage figures began to climb again in 1896, and they remained strong through 1904 when the bullion supply finally became exhausted. Although the Mint did not strike any Silver Dollars from 1905 through 1920, a slightly modified version of the Morgan design was pressed back into service in 1921 so that Silver Dollar production could resume as quickly as possible despite delays in the finalization of the new Peace design.
The Bland-Allison and Sherman Silver Purchase acts resulted in the federal government striking some 570 million Silver Dollars of the Morgan design. To this already sizeable total must be added an additional 85 million Morgan Dollars struck in 1921. Such a large production far exceeded the needs and demands of circulation, and most Morgan Dollars were simply stored in Treasury Department vaults until they were either melted at the end of World War I or were paid out to banks or individuals through the early 1960s. Even so, countless Morgan Dollars did circulate at different times during the late 19th century and through the mid 20th century. Many coins served as a circulating medium of exchange during the late 1800s and early 1900s, especially out West, while others acquired wear in casinos before the latter adopted the official gaming chips that are so familiar today. Many Morgan Dollars that acquired wear through use also survived, the removal of silver from circulation in the mid 1960s prompting contemporary Americans to save as many Silver Dollars as they could find.
The large number of circulated and Mint State examples that have survived have made the Morgan Dollar one of the most instantly recognizable and widely collected coins in the history of the United States Mint. This is also a long-running series, providing collectors with a wide variety of date and mintmark combinations from which to choose. The term “mintmark” refers to the small letter or letters found on coins that denote the Mint in which they were struck. Mintmarks on Morgan Dollars are located on the reverse of the coin above the letters DO in DOLLAR. The five United States Mints that struck Morgan Dollars and their respective mintmarks are as follows:
- Philadelphia Mint: 1878-1921, no mintmark
- Carson City Mint: 1878-1885 and 1889-1893, CC mintmark
- Denver Mint: 1921 only, D mintmark
- New Orleans Mint: 1879-1904, O mintmark
- San Francisco Mint: 1878-1921, S mintmark
In addition to their popularity as collectibles, Morgan Dollars are an attractive vehicle for investing in silver. Each Morgan Dollar contains more than 3/4 of an ounce of silver, and circulated examples of the more common issues such as the 1881-S, 1884-O and 1921 can be obtained for only a small premium above the current spot price of silver. Even more important for the desirability of their desirability as investments, Morgan Dollars are classic United States coins, which qualifies them as collectibles and could exempt them from government confiscation should there be a federal recall of precious metals such as that which affected gold during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Whether your interest is in coin collecting, precious metals investing or a little bit of both, the diverse Morgan Dollar series offers many important opportunities and advantages for a wide variety of buyers. We invite you to explore this exciting and potentially lucrative facet of the rare coin and precious metals markets by including circulated Morgan Silver Dollars in your collection or portfolio.
