Morgan Dollars 1878-1921

Silver-mining interests pushed Congress to bring the silver dollar back. President Rutherford B. Hayes vetoed the Bland-Allison bill, Congress overrode him, and the act took effect on February 28, 1878. It required the Treasury to buy silver every month and coin it into dollars. Mint Director Henry Linderman chose a design by George T. Morgan, an English-born assistant engraver. His Liberty was based on Anna Willess Williams, a Philadelphia schoolteacher.

The law produced far more dollars than commerce needed. Most were bagged and stored in Treasury and Mint vaults, and only the West used them much day to day. After the Panic of 1893, Congress repealed the silver-purchase clause of the Sherman Act, and Philadelphia's output fell to 110,972 dollars in 1894. The remaining bullion ran out in 1904, and the Morgan dollar stopped.

The Pittman Act of April 23, 1918, let the Treasury melt up to 350 million silver dollars. In all, 270,232,722 were destroyed, most of their silver going to Britain, which needed it to back its currency in India. The act also required the melted dollars to be replaced. When recoinage began in 1921, the old hubs no longer existed, so Morgan prepared new master dies. Denver and San Francisco struck more silver dollars that year than in any other, Philadelphia struck its largest Morgan total, and the Peace dollar took over late in the year.

The stored coins shaped the modern market. Treasury paid out silver dollars until 1964, and the General Services Administration sold its remaining Carson City dollars by mail bid from the early 1970s to 1980. All those uncirculated coins let collectors study the dies closely, which is how variety collecting grew up around the series.

Obverse. Liberty faces left in a cap with a band reading LIBERTY, with sprigs of wheat and cotton above it. E PLURIBUS UNUM arcs over her head, the date is at the bottom, and 13 stars sit between them, seven to the left of Liberty and six to the right. Morgan's initial M is on the truncation of the neck.

Reverse. An eagle spreads its wings, holding arrows and an olive branch, inside an open wreath tied with a bow. IN GOD WE TRUST is above the eagle in a stylized script. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA runs around the top and ONE DOLLAR along the bottom. A second M is on the left loop of the bow.

Mint mark. Look below the bow and above the DO of DOLLAR. CC was used 1878-1885 and 1889-1893, O 1879-1904, S 1878-1904 and 1921, and D in 1921 only. No letter means Philadelphia.

Things that cause confusion.

• 1878 Philadelphia coins come with eight tail feathers (the first design), seven tail feathers, or seven over eight, where the old feather tips show under the new ones.
• On the Reverse of 1878 the eagle's breast is flat and the topmost arrow feather lies parallel. The Reverse of 1879 has a rounder breast and a slanted feather. Both appear on some 1878 and 1879 coins.
• 1921 coins look noticeably different from earlier dates because they came from the new master dies.
• Prooflike (PL) and deep mirror prooflike (DMPL) coins are business strikes with mirrored fields, not proofs.

• 1893-S: 100,000 struck, which NGC lists as the lowest mintage of any Morgan issue. Most went into circulation, and NGC warns it is a frequent target of counterfeiters.
• 1895 Proof: 880 struck. Philadelphia reported 12,000 business strikes that year, but none has ever surfaced.
• 1889-CC: 350,000 struck after Carson City reopened in late 1889. NGC believes most were later melted.
• 1893-CC (677,000), 1893-O (300,000) and 1894 (110,972): small mintages. The 1894 figure dropped after Congress ended the Sherman Act's silver purchases.
• 1879-CC: more were struck than the 1880, 1881 or 1885-CC, but NGC finds it much harder, since few turned up in the GSA sales. The capped die variety has its CC mint mark punched over an earlier CC.
• 1895-O and 1895-S: 450,000 and 400,000 struck. The 1895-O is rarely found above About Uncirculated.
• 1884-S, 1886-O, 1892-S and 1901: millions struck, but most went into circulation or the Pittman melt, so they are rare in Mint State.
• 1903-O: once the series key, until bags turned up in Treasury vaults in the 1960s.
• 1921 Chapman proof and 1921 Zerbe: NGC puts the Chapman proofs at about 15 coins and the Zerbe pieces at 20 to 200.

Popular varieties fall into a few groups. Overdates: 1880/79-O, 1880/79-S, 1887/6 and 1887/6-O. Over mint marks: 1882-O/S and 1900-O/CC. Small mint marks: 1899-O Micro O and 1903-S Micro S. Doubled dies: the 1888-O "Hot Lips" and the 1901 reverse. From the design changes of 1878: the 7/8 tail feathers and the Reverse of 1879. Also widely collected is the 1890-CC tail bar.

What a VAM is. VAM stands for Van Allen-Mallis. Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis began recording every Morgan and Peace dollar die variety in the late 1960s and published their catalog in 1971. It has been revised many times. Each VAM number identifies coins from a particular die or die pairing. Specialists often start with the Top 100 and Hot 50 lists of the best-known ones.

The U.S. Mint revived the design in 2021 for the centennial and has issued it since. Those coins are listed under 1921 Silver Dollar Anniversary Coins.

• Composition: 90% silver, 10% copper
• Weight: 26.73 grams
• Silver content: 0.7734 troy ounces
• Diameter: 38.1 mm
• Edge: reeded
• Designer: George T. Morgan (both sides)

Philadelphia struck proofs every year of the series, from 1,355 in 1880 down to 590 in 1890. A handful of New Orleans, Carson City and San Francisco pieces are also called proofs, though official records do not confirm them. The 2021-and-later Mint issues are .999 fine silver and hold about 0.858 troy ounces.