MARCH 11
1878•Morgan Dollar
2004•1866 No Motto Silver Dollar Authenticated After Theft
The Morgan Dollar Enters Production
On March 11, 1878, the Philadelphia Mint produced the first satisfactory examples of a new silver dollar designed by George T. Morgan. Mint records reconstructed by numismatic researchers place the first acceptable strike at about 3:17 p.m., with regular production beginning around 3:35 p.m. The coin would become known simply as the Morgan dollar. Born from a political battle over silver, produced by five mints across two centuries, stored by the millions in government vaults and rediscovered through Treasury releases and the famous GSA sales, it became one of the most collected coins in American history.
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Few American coins have a story as large as the Morgan dollar.
It begins with mining.
Politics.
Inflation.
Deflation.
Farmers and bankers.
Western silver interests.
Congress.
Presidential vetoes.
Vaults filled with coins people did not want to use.
And a young British engraver who gave Liberty a distinctly American face.
The Morgan Dollar Was a Political Coin Before It Was a Collector Coin
The Morgan dollar did not begin because Americans suddenly demanded a new artistic silver dollar.
It emerged from a national argument over money.
The central question was whether silver should continue to play a major monetary role alongside gold.
The Coinage Act of 1873 reorganized United States coinage law.
Among its consequences was the end of the old standard silver dollar as a regular authorized denomination.
At the time, silver's market relationship to gold made the change seem less dramatic than it would later become.
Then silver prices fell.
As silver became cheaper relative to gold, miners, debtors and advocates of monetary expansion attacked the 1873 law.
They argued that eliminating the standard silver dollar had unfairly favored creditors and tightened the money supply.
Critics eventually labeled the legislation the “Crime of '73.”
The phrase became a rallying cry in the national free-silver debate.
Huge western deposits helped push more silver onto the market.
The Comstock Lode in Nevada had already transformed mining.
Other western discoveries added supply.
Silver producers wanted a government market for their metal.
Monetary activists wanted more silver money.
Representative Richard P. Bland of Missouri became a leading congressional advocate for silver.
Senator William B. Allison of Iowa helped shape the compromise that ultimately became law.
The resulting measure is remembered as the Bland-Allison Act.
President Hayes Vetoes the Bill
President Rutherford B. Hayes opposed the legislation.
He vetoed it.
Congress overrode his veto on February 28, 1878.
That date is one of the essential legal milestones behind the Morgan dollar.
The law did not establish unlimited free coinage of silver.
Instead, it required the Treasury to purchase between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver bullion each month and coin it into standard silver dollars.
That distinction matters.
The government became a large compulsory buyer of silver, but not an unlimited one.
The new dollars would follow the traditional statutory standard.
Each weighed 412.5 grains.
The composition was 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper.
That meant each coin contained 371.25 grains of pure silver.
The restored denomination needed dies suitable for mass production.
The task fell largely to a relatively new assistant engraver at the Philadelphia Mint.
His name was George T. Morgan.
Morgan was born in Birmingham, England, in 1845.
He trained at the Birmingham Art School and worked for the Royal Mint in London.
His abilities attracted the attention of United States Mint officials seeking fresh artistic talent.
He came to Philadelphia in 1876.
At the time, William Barber was Chief Engraver of the United States Mint.
Morgan served as an assistant engraver.
The relationship between the established Barber engraving establishment and the ambitious newcomer was not always simple.
But Morgan soon received the assignment that would define his career.
Morgan wanted his Liberty portrait to look more American than the conventional classical figures seen on many earlier coins.
He studied the profile of Anna Willess Williams, a Philadelphia teacher.
Williams became the model associated with the dollar's Liberty head.
Williams did not become a public celebrity by choice.
Her connection to the coin eventually became widely known despite her preference for privacy.
Morgan used sittings with her to refine the profile that appeared on the dollar.
The result is not simply a literal photographic portrait but an idealized Liberty based on a real American woman.
Liberty faces left.
She wears a Phrygian-style cap, agricultural elements and a headband inscribed LIBERTY.
Thirteen stars surround the portrait.
E PLURIBUS UNUM arcs above.
The date appears below.
The reverse features an eagle with wings raised.
It holds arrows and an olive branch.
A wreath surrounds the lower portion.
IN GOD WE TRUST appears above the eagle.
The inscriptions identify the United States and the denomination ONE DOLLAR.
The Eagle Caused Trouble Before Production
The reverse did not move directly from drawing board to production unchanged.
Morgan experimented with the eagle's tail feathers and other details.
The earliest 1878 production coins would preserve one of the most famous first-year variations in American coinage.
The first Morgan dollars struck for regular production show an eagle with eight tail feathers.
Collectors abbreviate the variety as 8TF.
The configuration was soon changed.
Contemporary criticism noted that an eagle conventionally has an odd number of tail feathers.
The reverse was modified to show seven.
That produced the 7TF reverse.
The rapid change created multiple collectible varieties within the first year alone.
Some 1878 dies show remnants of the original eight-tail-feather design beneath the revised seven-tail-feather hubbing.
Collectors know these as 7/8 Tail Feathers varieties.
They are physical evidence of the hurried design transition.
After weeks of preparation, testing and die work, the Philadelphia Mint was ready to produce acceptable new dollars.
Detailed Mint-record research cited by numismatic specialists places the first satisfactory Morgan dollar strike at approximately 3:17 p.m. on March 11.
Regular production began at approximately 3:35 p.m.
Coin production is not always a single clean moment.
Dies are tested.
Press pressure is adjusted.
Trial pieces may reveal defects.
The phrase “first satisfactory strike” distinguishes an acceptable production coin from preliminary attempts that did not meet Mint requirements.
The roughly eighteen-minute gap between the first satisfactory piece and regular production illustrates how industrial coinage actually begins.
A successful strike proves the dies and press settings can work.
Then the mint moves into sustained output.
March 11 marks that transition for the Morgan dollar.
The first Morgan dollars carried no mintmark because they were struck at Philadelphia.
Philadelphia would become one of five mints to produce the series.
Carson City, New Orleans, San Francisco and—much later—Denver would join it.
The CC mintmark became one of the most beloved combinations in American collecting.
Carson City sat close to western silver production and struck Morgan dollars intermittently from 1878 through 1893.
Many CC dollars later survived in government storage, creating one of the greatest rediscovery stories in numismatics.
The New Orleans Mint struck Morgan dollars from 1879 through 1904.
Its O mintmark appears beneath the wreath on the reverse.
New Orleans issues range from common dates to important rarities and condition challenges.
San Francisco
The San Francisco Mint struck Morgan dollars in numerous years from 1878 through 1904 and again in 1921.
Some San Francisco Morgans are renowned for strong strikes and attractive surfaces.
Others are major keys.
Denver did not strike Morgan dollars during the original nineteenth-century run.
Its only classic Morgan issue came in 1921.
The 1921-D therefore has the distinction of being the only Morgan dollar from the Denver Mint.
A complete mintmark type collection can therefore include:
- Philadelphia — no mintmark
- Carson City — CC
- New Orleans — O
- San Francisco — S
- Denver — D
Few classic American coin series connect so many historic mint facilities.
The Bland-Allison Act required silver purchases and coinage.
But ordinary commerce did not absorb Morgan dollars at the same rate.
Paper currency was often more convenient.
Many silver dollars therefore accumulated in Treasury vaults.
Canvas bags containing 1,000 silver dollars could remain stored for decades.
Coins that might have been heavily worn in circulation instead survived in Mint State.
That unusual storage history is one reason large numbers of nineteenth-century Morgan dollars remain available to collectors.
Vault survival did not mean perfect preservation.
Heavy silver dollars striking one another inside bags acquired contact marks.
A coin could remain technically uncirculated while showing numerous abrasions.
That is why surface quality matters so much when grading Morgan dollars.
Silver politics did not end with Bland-Allison.
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 required additional government silver purchases under a different mechanism.
The legislation reflected continuing political pressure from silver interests.
It was repealed in 1893 amid the financial crisis of that decade.
By 1904, the bullion purchased under earlier silver legislation was largely exhausted for dollar coinage purposes.
Morgan dollar production stopped.
At the time, the series appeared finished.
It was not.
During World War I, Congress passed the Pittman Act.
It authorized the melting of hundreds of millions of silver dollars.
The silver could be sold, including to support wartime financial needs involving British India.
The law also required replacement silver purchases and recoining.
More than 270 million silver dollars were ultimately melted under Pittman Act authority.
Many were Morgan dollars.
The melting radically altered survival patterns.
Some dates that had once existed in huge quantities became scarcer.
The Morgan Dollar Returns in 1921
To satisfy the recoining requirements, the Mint resumed silver-dollar production in 1921.
Morgan's design returned after a seventeen-year interruption.
Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco produced enormous quantities.
By 1921, Morgan was no longer the young assistant who had designed the dollar in the 1870s.
He had become Chief Engraver of the United States Mint after Charles E. Barber's death in 1917.
His old design returned while he headed the engraving department.
Later in 1921, the Mint introduced the Peace dollar.
Anthony de Francisci's new design commemorated the restoration of peace after World War I.
The Morgan dollar's original production era finally ended.
Even after melting, millions of older Morgan dollars remained stored.
For decades, relatively few collectors understood exactly what dates and mintmarks were hidden in government bags.
That changed dramatically in the mid-twentieth century.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, rising silver prices and growing collector interest encouraged people to redeem silver certificates for silver dollars.
Treasury vaults began releasing bags that had sat untouched for generations.
Previously scarce-looking dates suddenly appeared in quantity.
Collectors were astonished when bags of uncirculated Carson City dollars surfaced.
Coins struck in the 1880s could look almost new.
The discoveries transformed rarity estimates and ignited interest in the series.
By 1964, the government halted the mass redemption of silver certificates for silver dollars from Treasury holdings.
Several million dollars remained, many of them Carson City issues.
The question became what to do with them.
The General Services Administration eventually marketed the remaining hoard to collectors.
Beginning in the 1970s, millions of Carson City Morgan dollars were sold in special holders.
The GSA dollars became a collecting category of their own.
Original government packaging connects a coin directly to the Treasury hoard dispersal.
Collectors often value that provenance.
A Carson City Morgan in an intact GSA holder is both a coin and an artifact of one of the largest government coin sales in history.
One of the most famous Morgan dollars is the 1895 Philadelphia issue.
Mint records report 12,000 business strikes, yet none are known with certainty today.
Only proofs survive.
The date has long been called the “King of the Morgan Dollars.”
The 1893-S is another legendary key.
Only 100,000 were struck, the lowest regular business-strike mintage in the series.
Most circulated.
High-grade survivors are great rarities.
The 1889-CC
The 1889-CC is one of the most desirable Carson City issues.
It came from the year coinage resumed after the Carson City Mint's multi-year suspension.
Its combination of CC popularity and scarcity makes it a cornerstone key date.
The 1903-O was once considered a major rarity.
Then Treasury bags emerged containing large quantities of uncirculated examples.
Its market value collapsed relative to earlier expectations.
The episode became a classic lesson: rarity estimates can change when hidden hoards appear.
Morgan dollars support an entire specialty based on die varieties.
The term VAM comes from researchers Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis.
Collectors study doubled dies, repunched mintmarks, overmintmarks, die gouges, clashes and countless other diagnostics.
No year demonstrates this better than 1878.
Eight tail feathers.
Seven over eight.
Different seven-tail-feather reverses.
Die variations.
The first year allows collectors to watch the design evolve almost in real time.
Some business-strike Morgan dollars show unusually reflective fields created by highly polished dies.
Collectors describe qualifying pieces as Prooflike or Deep Mirror Prooflike.
Strong contrast between frosted devices and mirrored fields can produce spectacular visual appeal.
Silver reacts chemically with its environment.
Morgan dollars stored for decades in bags, albums or holders can develop colorful toning.
Natural examples may show gold, blue, violet, green and red hues.
Exceptional toning has become a major specialty within the Morgan market.
Because attractive color can increase value, some coins are deliberately altered.
Collectors must distinguish plausible natural toning from artificial treatments.
Expertise, provenance and third-party grading can help, but toning remains an area requiring judgment.
Large size helps.
Silver helps.
Mintmarks help.
Visible varieties help.
Hoard stories help.
Western history helps.
The Morgan dollar combines almost every feature that can make a coin series addictive.
Common circulated Morgan dollars remain accessible enough for many collectors to own an example.
A single worn coin provides the same basic design that appears on six-figure rarities.
That accessibility keeps the series connected to ordinary hobbyists.
At the other end, specialists can pursue condition rarities, prooflike pieces, VAM varieties, toned coins, GSA holders, pedigrees or complete date-and-mint sets.
The series scales from a one-coin type collection to elite numismatics.
The Design Returns in the Twenty-First Century
The Morgan dollar's story did not end in 1921.
Congress authorized modern Morgan and Peace dollars for the centennial of the two classic designs.
The United States Mint began issuing new Morgan dollars in 2021.
George Morgan's nineteenth-century design returned as a modern collector coin.
The modern program commemorated the transition from Morgan to Peace dollars in 1921.
New issues evoked historic mint facilities through privy marks and mintmarks.
Collector demand was intense.
The revival demonstrated how deeply the Morgan design remains embedded in American numismatic culture.
The irony is striking.
The Morgan dollar was created because Congress required the Treasury to buy silver and coin it.
Many original coins sat unused in vaults because the public did not need them in the quantities produced.
Yet those same stored coins later helped create one of America's largest collector markets.
That reversal may be the essence of the Morgan story.
In the nineteenth century, millions were surplus monetary inventory.
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, collectors searched obsessively for dates, mintmarks, varieties and high grades.
History changed the meaning of the object.
February 28 gave the Morgan dollar its legal foundation through the Bland-Allison Act.
March 11 gave the design physical life.
The first satisfactory strike proved the new dies could produce an acceptable silver dollar.
Minutes later, regular production began.
Numismatic history rarely lets us approach the birth of a major coin type with such precision.
About 3:17 p.m.
A press came down.
Metal flowed into George Morgan's design.
An acceptable new silver dollar emerged.
Then the process moved from successful test to sustained manufacture.
Regular production began.
The Morgan dollar was no longer a model, a die or a political promise.
It was a mass-produced United States coin.
The workers at the Philadelphia Mint could not have known what the new dollar would become.
They could not foresee Treasury hoards, GSA sales, VAM books, grading registries or twenty-first-century Morgan revivals.
They were simply beginning production required by law.
Collectors gave the coin its later legend.
On March 11, 1878, the Philadelphia Mint produced the first satisfactory Morgan dollar at about 3:17 p.m. and moved into regular production around 3:35 p.m. What began as the metallic product of America's bitter silver debate became a five-mint, two-century numismatic phenomenon—and arguably the most recognizable collectible silver dollar in United States history.
Own a Piece of the History
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