The Morgan dollar is a United States dollar coin minted from 1878 to 1904, as well as 1921. It was minted again beginning in 2021 as a collectible. It was the first standard silver dollar minted since the passage of the Coinage Act of 1873, which ended the free coining of silver and the production of the previous design, the Seated Liberty dollar. It contained 412.5 Troy grains of 90% pure silver (or of pure silver). The coin is named after its designer, United States Mint Assistant Engraver George T. Morgan. The obverse depicts a profile portrait representing Liberty, modeled by Anna Willess Williams, while the reverse depicts an eagle with wings outstretched. The mint mark, if present, appears on the reverse above between D and O in "Dollar".
The dollar was authorized by the Bland–Allison Act. Following the passage of the 1873 act, mining interests lobbied to restore free silver, which would require the Mint to accept all silver presented to it and return it, struck into coin. Instead, the Bland–Allison Act was passed, which required the Treasury to purchase between two and four million dollars' worth of silver at market value to be coined into dollars each month. In 1890, the Bland–Allison Act was repealed by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the Treasury to purchase of silver each month, but only required further silver dollar production for one year. This act, once again, was repealed in 1893.
In 1898, Congress approved a bill that required all remaining bullion purchased under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to be coined into silver dollars. When those silver reserves were depleted in 1904, the Mint ceased to strike the Morgan dollar. The Pittman Act, passed in 1918, authorized the melting and recoining of millions of silver dollars. Pursuant to the act, Morgan dollars resumed mintage for one year in 1921. The design was replaced by the Peace dollar later the same year.
In the early 1960s, a large quantity of uncirculated Morgan dollars in their original bags were discovered in the Treasury vaults, including issues once thought rare. Individuals began purchasing large quantities of the pieces at face value and then removed them from circulation through hoarding, and eventually the Treasury ceased exchanging silver certificates for silver coin. Beginning in the 1970s, the Treasury conducted a sale of silver dollars minted at the Carson City Mint through the General Services Administration. In 2006, Morgan's reverse design was used on a silver dollar issued to commemorate the old San Francisco Mint building. The US Mint began striking Morgan Dollars again in 2021, initially as a commemorative to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the conclusion of the design's final usage, then as an annual release starting in 2023.
Background
In 1873, Congress enacted the Fourth Coinage Act, which effectively ended the bimetallic standard in the United States by demonetizing silver bullion. Prior to enactment of the Coinage Act, silver could be brought to the mints and coined into legal tender for a small fee. With such a system in place, bullion producers could have silver coined into dollars when the intrinsic value of a silver dollar was lower than the face value, thus making a profit, flooding the money supply and causing inflation. The act ended production of the standard silver dollar (then the Seated Liberty dollar, as designed by Christian Gobrecht) and provided for mintage of a silver trade dollar, which was intended to compete with Mexican dollars for use in the Orient. Under the act, bullion producers were allowed to bring bullion to the mints in order to be cast into bars or coined into the newly authorized trade dollars for a small fee. Trade dollars initially held legal tender status, but it was revoked in 1876 to prevent bullion producers from making a profit by coining silver into trade dollars when the value of the metal was low. The restrictions on free coinage laid out in the Coinage Act initially met little resistance from mining interests until the price of silver declined rapidly due to increased mining in the Western United States. Protests also came from bankers, manufacturers and farmers, who felt an increased money supply would have a positive impact. Groups were formed that demanded the free coinage of silver (or "free silver") in order to inflate the dollar following the Panic of 1873.
Beginning in 1876, several bills were introduced in the House of Representatives in an effort to resume the free coinage of silver. One such bill introduced into the House by Democratic Representative Richard P. Bland of Missouri was passed in the fall of 1876. Republican senator William B. Allison of Iowa added important amendments to the bill in the Senate. The House bill allowed Free Silver; one of Allison's amendments struck that provision. This same amendment allowed for the issuance of silver certificates for the first time in United States history. The bill was vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes. In 2021 an 1893-S Morgan dollar in MS-67 sold for US$2,086,875.00.
Sherman Silver Purchase Act, Panic of 1893
thumb|upright=0.8|left|Ohio senator John Sherman authored the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, forcing the Treasury to purchase each month.
Mintage of the Morgan dollar remained relatively steady until the passage of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act on July 14, 1890. The act, authored by Ohio senator and former Treasury secretary John Sherman, forced the Treasury to increase the amount of silver purchased to each month. Supporters of the act believed that an increase in the amount of silver purchased would result in inflation, helping to relieve the nation's farmers. The act also received support from mining interests because such large purchases would cause the price of silver to rise and increase their profits. Despite the Act's requiring large purchases of silver indefinitely, it provided that the Mint must coin 2,000,000 silver dollars each month only until 1891. Minting of dollars dropped sharply beginning in 1892. The silver that remained after mintage of the dollars was used to mint dimes, quarters and half dollars.
Beginning early in 1893, a number of industrial firms, including the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the National Cordage Company went bankrupt. This incident triggered huge interest, and between November 1962 and March 1964, millions of Morgan and Peace dollars were sold to the general public. The demand to exchange silver certificates for silver dollars was so great that lines formed outside of the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. Some people in line were pushing wheelbarrows. The U.S. Treasury discovered previously unknown mint bags in its vaults containing slightly more than 2.8 million Carson City silver dollars. Morgan Dollars were made available for purchase in May 2021, and sold out on the U.S. Mint website in 45 minutes, and had a staggered order window based on the different mint marks. Peace Dollars were available beginning later in the same year. Each coin shipped in October 2021. High demand of these coins led to controversy over U.S. Mint ordering procedures and resulted in delays from the originally intended release dates. The 2021 Morgan Dollars were minted in the active mints of Philadelphia (no mint mark), Denver (D), and San Francisco (S). Two-thirds of the Philadelphia-minted dollars contained "privy marks" for the now defunct Carson City (CC) and New Orleans (O) mints. The 2021 Peace Dollars had no mint mark and were only minted in Philadelphia. After the chaos caused by the CC and O dollars, the Household Order Limit was reduced from 10 to 3 for the remainder of the dollars.
The US Mint originally decided to continue the Morgan and Peace Dollar program for 2022 and beyond minted in San Francisco (S) with a proof finish, but on March 14, 2022, announced that the planned 2022 releases had been scrapped due to "supply chain issues, production capacity and shipping logistics", and the rising price of silver, with plans to resume the program in 2023.
For 2023, the US Mint announced plans to release Morgan Dollars in three finishes: Uncirculated, minted by the Philadelphia Mint with no mint mark, 275,000 mintage limit; Proof, minted by the San Francisco Mint with an S mint mark, 400,000 mintage limit; and Reverse Proof, released as part of a 2-coin set with a Peace Dollar, minted by the San Francisco Mint with an S mint mark, 250,000 mintage limit.
The 2023 Uncirculated Morgan Dollar was released by the US Mint on July 13, 2023, and sold out on the first day of issue.
Mintage figures
thumb|1881 Morgan Dollar Reverse
The dollars were produced every year between 1878 and 1904 at a total of four different mints. Each mint, with the exception of Philadelphia, has its own mint mark. In 1921 production was resumed for one year only, with this year being the only one where the Denver mint was used, until 2021. The number of dollars surviving are unknown as the Pittman Act resulted in the melting of millions of these coins, and the individual dates melted were never recorded. PCGS CoinFacts estimates survivals are less than 10% of the mintage.
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align: right;"
|-
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Philadelphia
! scope="col" | New Orleans
! scope="col" | San Francisco
! scope="col" | Carson City
! scope="col" | Denver
|-
! scope="row" | 1878
| 10,508,800
|
| 9,774,000
| 2,212,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1879
| 14,806,000
| 2,887,000
| 9,110,000
| 756,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1880
| 12,600,000
| 5,305,000
| 8,900,000
| 495,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1881
| 9,163,000
| 5,708,000
| 12,760,000
| 296,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1882
| 11,100,000
| 6,090,000
| 9,250,000
| 1,133,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1883
| 12,290,000
| 8,725,000
| 6,250,000
| 1,204,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1884
| 14,070,000
| 9,730,000
| 3,200,000
| 1,136,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1885
| 17,787,000
| 9,185,000
| 1,497,000
| 228,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1886
| 19,963,000
| 10,710,000
| 750,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1887
| 20,290,000
| 11,550,000
| 1,771,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1888
| 19,183,000
| 12,150,000
| 657,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1889
| 21,726,000
| 11,875,000
| 700,000
| 350,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1890
| 16,802,000
| 10,701,100
| 8,230,373
| 2,309,041
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1891
| 8,693,556
| 7,954,529
| 5,296,000
| 1,618,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1892
| 1,036,000
| 2,744,000
| 1,200,000
| 1,352,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1893
| 378,000
| 300,000
| 100,000
| 677,000
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1894
| 110,000
| 1,723,000
| 1,260,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1895
| 880 (proof only)
| 450,000
| 400,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1896
| 9,976,000
| 4,900,000
| 5,000,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1897
| 2,822,000
| 4,004,000
| 5,825,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1898
| 5,884,000
| 4,400,000
| 4,102,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1899
| 330,000
| 12,290,000
| 2,562,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1900
| 8,830,000
| 12,590,000
| 3,540,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1901
| 6,962,000
| 13,320,000
| 2,284,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1902
| 7,994,000
| 8,636,000
| 1,530,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1903
| 4,652,000
| 4,450,000
| 1,241,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1904
| 2,788,000
| 3,720,000
| 2,304,000
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1921
| 44,690,000
|
| 21,695,000
|
| 20,345,000
|-
! scope="row" | 2021
| 525,000
|
| 175,000
|
| 175,000
|-
! scope="row" | 2023
| 273,632
|
| data-sort-value=551720 | 351,135 (proof)<br />200,585 (reverse proof)
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 2024
|275,000
|
| 262,500
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 2025
|150,000
|
|180,000
|-
! scope="row" | Total
| 306,244,979
| 186,097,629
| 132,177,593
| 13,766,041
| 20,520,000
|}
See also
- VAM (Morgan and Peace dollar die varieties)
Notes
Citations
General and cited references
External links
- The National Silver Dollar Round Table
- Morgan Dollars Complete Coin Guide