Morgan Dollars

Morgan Dollars have long been considered the most beautiful coin the US Mint has made, but would you be surprised if I told you they didn’t start off with much fanfare in 1878? In fact, the Morgan Dollar was almost universally hated right before the turn of the 20th century. The public thought the eagle on the reverse looked more like a pelican and should have been offered at a discount from face value to help improve its reception. Between the public’s perception of the Morgan Dollar and the over-production of the dollar, many Morgan Dollars ended up sitting in the vaults of many banks.

The silver dollar was redesigned by George Morgan and then minted in 1878 to feature a profile of Lady Liberty, a change from previous design, the Seated Liberty Dollar. The Morgan Dollar was minted in quite a few different locations, the Denver Mint, the San Francisco Mint, the New Orleans Mint, the Philadelphia Mint and finally the famous Carson City Mint.

The Morgan Dollar is often mistaken to be composed of one troy ounce of silver, actually it has just over three-fourths of a troy ounce of silver and a composition of 90% silver and 10% copper. It was minted from 1878 to 1904 then later for one year in 1921.

If you were around in the early 1900′s there would be quite a few different dollars you could choose to spend. The aforementioned Morgan Dollar, the Seated Liberty Dollar and the Trade Dollar were all silver coined dollars. Further, you had gold one dollar coins that came in three different designs. Then there were one dollar bills in the form of Legal Tender Notes, Federal Reserve Notes and Silver Certificates.

The initial perception of the Morgan Dollar lead to many great examples being saved in bank vaults for present day collectors. The Morgan Dollar has a very interesting history and this post is just a brief overview. The Newark Coin Exchange is always buying old silver dollars including the Morgan Dollar.

Thanks for reading.