Morgan Dollar

History

The Bland-Allison Act, enacted February 28, 1878, authorized the coinage of the standard silver dollar and restored its legal-tender character, and it became law only after the House and Senate overrode President Rutherford B. Hayes's veto the same day it took effect. The act restored the weight and fineness set by the Act of January 18, 1837, and produced the first standard silver dollar struck since the Coinage Act of 1873 ended free coinage of silver and the Seated Liberty dollar. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 pushed further silver into the coinage chain until its repeal on November 1, 1893, after which Congress in June 1898 ordered the coining of all remaining bullion bought under that act. When that silver was exhausted in 1904, production stopped at every facility, and no silver dollars were struck in the United States from 1905 through 1920. The Pittman Act of 1918 required replacement of melted dollars, which returned the Morgan for a single year in 1921 before the Peace dollar took over; the design came back again under the 1921 Silver Dollar Coin Anniversary Act, Public Law 116-286, signed January 5, 2021.

Details

George T. Morgan, an assistant engraver at the time of the design work, cut both the obverse and reverse, and his pattern was selected for its coinability rather than its artistry. Each coin weighs 26.73 grams (412 1/2 grains) of .900 silver and .100 copper, measures 38.1 mm across and 2.4 mm thick, carries a reeded edge, and contains 0.7734 troy ounce of pure silver. Philadelphia, San Francisco and Carson City all struck the type in 1878, New Orleans joined in 1879, and Denver contributed only in 1921. Carson City's output ran from 1878 to 1885 and resumed from 1889 to 1893, a three-year gap that separates two distinct halves of the CC run. Across 1878-1904 and 1921 the type totals 656,989,387 business strikes and 23,723 proofs; the 2021 and later issues are struck in .999 silver as numismatic items rather than as circulating coinage.

Features

The obverse carries Liberty facing left in a Phrygian cap trimmed with wheat and cotton leaves, LIBERTY on the band holding the spray, E PLURIBUS UNUM above, seven stars left and six right, and the date below. The reverse shows an eagle with outstretched wings clasping arrows and an olive branch within a wreath, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and ONE DOLLAR around and IN GOD WE TRUST above the eagle, so the two mottos sit on opposite faces from where collectors of other types expect them. Mint marks appear on the reverse above and between the D and O of DOLLAR, in one position for the entire classic run. Contemporary critics thought the bird looked scrawny and dubbed the coin the Buzzard Dollar. The PCGS Set Registry recognizes 20 more entries in its Morgan Dollars with Major Varieties circulation-strike set, at 117 required items, than in the 97-item basic set.

Notable facts

• Anna Willess Williams modeled the Liberty portrait.
• Morgan was born November 24, 1845 in Bilston, England, emigrated to the United States in 1876, and became the seventh Chief Engraver in 1917 following the death of Charles E. Barber, serving until his own death on January 4, 1925.
• New hubs had to be cut to strike the 1921 issue because the earlier master dies no longer existed.
• Just over 270 million silver dollars were melted under the Pittman Act, with most of the resulting bullion sold to Britain at $1 per ounce and 8.59 million ounces retained for dimes, quarters and half dollars.
• PCGS names the 1884-S, 1886-O, 1889-CC, 1892-S, 1893-S, 1894-O, 1895-O and 1896-O as the rarest dates of the series in top condition, several of which had large mintages but few surviving Mint State coins.
• The Carson City Mint opened in 1870 to coin and assay ore from the Comstock Lode and halted coining operations in 1893, continuing afterward as an assay office.
• Because the Carson City and New Orleans facilities are closed, the 2021 coins honoring them carry raised oval privy marks with an incused CC or O, and Philadelphia struck both privy-mark versions along with a version bearing no mint mark.