1880 Morgan Dollars 1878-1921 MS65DMPL

History

The Morgan dollar arose from silver politics rather than a need for circulating coin. Falling silver prices through the 1860s, pushed down by output from the Comstock Lode discovered in 1859, preceded the Coinage Act of 1873, which ended bimetallism, halted silver dollar production and placed the country on the gold standard. Western mining interests pressed Congress for relief, and the Bland-Allison Act of 1878 obliged the Treasury to buy specified monthly amounts of silver for coinage into dollars. Mint Director Henry P. Linderman chose the design submitted by George T. Morgan (1845-1925), an English-born assistant engraver at Philadelphia who later became chief engraver, and the 1880-S is a third-year issue struck at San Francisco under that standing purchase mandate.

Details

George T. Morgan designed both sides of the coin, with no separate reverse designer. The alloy is 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper, the weight 26.73 grams (412.50 grains), the diameter 38.10 mm, and the edge reeded. San Francisco struck 8,900,000 business strikes of the date. Deep Mirror Prooflike is a grading designation applied after the fact to coins struck from freshly polished dies, so no portion of that mintage was produced as DMPL, and certified population rather than mintage governs availability.

Features

The obverse shows Liberty facing left in a Phrygian cap, LIBERTY on the band that holds a spray of leaves and sheaves, E PLURIBUS UNUM above, seven stars to the left and six to the right, and the date below. The reverse carries a wingspread eagle grasping an olive branch and three arrows, with the S mint mark beneath the wreath. PCGS applies Prooflike to coins grading MS60 or better with clear mirrored reflectivity at two to four inches and Deep Mirror Prooflike to Morgan dollars at MS60 or better showing deep reflectivity, calling the distinction one of degree, and it withholds the designation where cartwheel luster or die striations cost an area its clarity. The date is also a strong overdate issue: San Francisco reused 1879 dies, yielding 80 over 79, 8 over 7 and 0 over 9 combinations, with VAM-8 and VAM-9 sharing an 80/79 obverse, VAM-10 the rarest of the group, VAM-11 showing a clear underlying 9 within the 0, and VAM-12 minor enough to be difficult to identify.

Notable facts

• PCGS tracks the 1880-S DMPL under certification number 97119, and the overdate DMPLs occupy separate listings whose population and price data do not pool with it.
• The PCGS auction record for the DMPL listing is $33,350 for an MS68 DMPL sold in January 2005, while the undesignated 1880-S records $162,000 for an MS69 sold in January 2021.
• The 1880-O DMPL records $66,000 for an MS65 DMPL sold in August 2023 against a 5,305,000 mintage, placing New Orleans far behind San Francisco in DMPL availability for the date.
• NGC's Scott Schechter has cautioned that coins which have been polished, cleaned, artificially toned or lacquered can appear deeply prooflike without qualifying for the designation.
• Total Morgan dollar production across 1878-1904 and 1921 came to 656,989,387 business strikes and 23,723 proofs.
• A separate PCGS listing exists for 1880-S dollars in GSA Hoard holders.