PCGS The Standart for the Rare Coin Industry

Essay # 1
The Morgan Silver Dollar
by Christine M. Frazier

"It's peach juice. Guar-an-dog-teed, it's bonafide peach juice."

That was how I first became fascinated with the Morgan Silver Dollar.

The coin I was viewing through a scratched old magnifying glass was encrusted with a thick, amber-like resin that my grandfather was ecstatic about.

"No, two ways about it, 'lil Missy, if you took this out of the plastic and put it to your tongue, you'd know it was them peaches. I got a coyote's tail to a rabbit's foot that says I'd be right."

Not being particularly interested in owning either a coyote's tail or a rabbit's foot, I didn't respond to Grandpa's offer to wager but by his inflection, I figured he knew what he was talking about.

Grandpa lived on the side of a mountain (he called it an 'anthill' compared to the rest of the Rockies) near Mt. Davidson, Nevada just outside of Reno. His house only had four rooms (including the bathroom) but it was always warm and friendly. I enjoyed spending a week or two there every summer as I was growing up due in large part to hearing Grandpa dart around from one soliloquy to another about the evils of the government, the never-changing weather, or most often, his favorite subject, his coin collection.

AND WHAT A COLLECTION IT WAS!

Morgans.

Thousands and thousands of Morgans.

Every year he would bring out a different set of coins from a rusty old Wells Fargo safe that in retrospect, looked like he had sent to the Ted Turner network to get colorized. Deep-forest green, yellow, orange, brown, golden, cobalt blue, royal velvet purple, you name it, he had it in glorious color.

Each coin had been carefully placed in a small plastic holder with a paper punch hole in the corner. Through the hole was a bread-bag tie with a metal-stamped tag that bore the letters 'LR' with the date and mintmark of the coin.

The ugliest ones, those that were dark brown or almost black with 'peach juice', were his favorites.

How he came to own them was among the best of his coin stories and he always told it with such wide-eyed excitement, it just about has to be true.

"Before you learn about why these coins are special, you'd best learn about how they came to be made in the first place. Let's head on over to the library and do some readin' on the whole dern fiasco." Grandpa was a retired school teacher but he NEVER stopped teaching.

Reno, Nevada has to be the greatest place in the world to learn about the history of the Morgan silver dollar. The library shelves are loaded with reference material on the silver mining industry, local miner's diaries dating back a hundred-and twenty-five years, the discovery and history of the Comstock Lode, the role of Virginia City, the personal histories of the silver mining barons, their lobbying efforts, and how the U.S. Government came to provide the greatest subsidy for a private industry in the entire history of our country.

The silver mining lobby of the 1870s had lots of friends in Washington who weren't shy about making their needs and desires known to lawmakers.

The challenge was one of how to overcome the law of supply and demand. The supply was enormous; it was the demand that was the problem.

The situation facing the silver miners was that silver had been discovered in large quantities which held the potential for making the miners enormously wealthy if only they could find a buyer. The only buyer who might have both the need and the means to acquire silver in vast quantities was the U.S. Government.

Their lobbyists, led by Representative Richard P. "Silver Dick" Bland and William B. Allison, eventually coerced the government into passing a law mandating the purchase of $2,000,000 - $4,000,000 in silver bullion per month for both coinage and to back up the immense quantity of silver certificates in circulation at the time. This law, known as the Bland-Allison Act of February 28, 1878, was tripped up by a presidential veto, but again, powerful Congressional leaders and friends of silver interests rallied to defeat the veto with sufficient votes to over-ride and the bill skated on through both houses.

The Director of the Mint at the time, Mr. Henry R. Linderman, appointed George T. Morgan to design the new coin which would eventually bear his name. Morgan created a powerful profile from the face of model Anna Willess Williams but to protect her identity, the official story was released that Morgan used a Greek statue for the likeness. Amazingly, the profile was so accurate that Miss Williams was identified by a newspaper reporter as the model simply by comparing her face to the coin. She lost her teaching position over that revelation because modeling was considered scandalous work at the time.

Within twelve days of the passage of the Bland-Allison Act, Morgan had working dies ready to begin minting coins. Director Linderman, acting mostly on historical precedent, changed the Morgan design notably from eight tail feathers on the eagle (reverse) to the more historically-compliant seven tail feathers as odd-numbered feathers were much more socially acceptable. He also slanted the top arrow feather and rounded out the eagle's breast. Out of personal empathy for Mr. Morgan, I searched extensively to see if he was angered by these changes in his creation by the Director but apparently, he took them in stride.

By March 13, 1878, the first 40,000 business strikes were completed and the fascinating story of 'America's Silver Dollar' began to emerge.

Mints in Philadelphia, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Carson City all began to produce the Morgan Silver dollar. In 1878 alone, over 22,000,000 silver dollars were produced at the various mints and the flood gates were opened.

I never could quite picture in my mind what that many silver dollars would look like, until I recently saw an illustration which originally appeared in Harper's Weekly on July 15, 1893 showing Treasury accountants attempting to weigh and document thousands and thousands of bags of silver dollars in just one treasury vault in Washington. The image is overwhelming. I think I am adequate at math but this would keep an Einstein busy for years!!

At any rate, the production continued in an upward spiral while usage continued to drop. Picture if you will the ease of carrying a $20 bill versus twenty silver dollars and you will understand why they were never particularly popular, especially east of the Mississippi River.

To add insult to injury, Senator John Sherman (formerly the Secretary of the Treasury) introduced a bill which became the Act of July 14, 1890, which required the U.S. Treasury to buy at least 4.5 million ounces of silver per month and to coin at least two million silver dollars monthly.

With a glut of silver already on the market and millions upon millions of silver dollars in storage in the Treasury vaults, this Act was a colossal disaster.

Silver mine owners sold their bullion to the Treasury and were paid in script known as 'Coin Notes' (a form of reimbursement authorized by the same Act). They then turned these 'Coin Notes' in to the government in exchange for gold which they utilized to buy and refine more silver which in turn, they sold to the Treasury for more gold which eventually drained gold reserves leading to the Panic of 1893. More than 400 banks failed and thousands of businesses went down with them leading up to the repeal of the Act (Sherman Act) in 1894.

Nevertheless, Morgans were made continually until 1904 when silver reserves were depleted.

The silver lobby pushed through a mandate requiring one more year of Morgan production in 1921 where an additional 87,000,000 coins were produced. This brought to a close the production of Morgan dollars forever but not before over one-half billion of them were coined.

Since I was five years old, my Grandfather has sent me fifty Morgan dollars each year for my birthday in a small wooden box. Each box is always accompanied by a list of ten questions about silver dollars. If I answer all ten of them correctly, he sends me another fifty silver dollars. As the years have passed, those questions have become harder and harder but I haven't missed any yet!

My collection now numbers just short of one thousand coins and I am hopeful that they will play a big role in getting me through college. The surge in coin prices in 1998 is certainly a welcomed development for an in-coming high school senior!

My Grandfather's collection and my initial interest would not be validated if I didn't explain about the peach juice.

I have heard my Grandfather tell this story at least a hundred times but I always enjoy hearing it again.

In the early 1960s, my Grandpa was crossing a rather busy street in Reno against a red light when a man driving a light turquoise pick-up truck struck him and knocked him to the pavement. He wasn't hurt but the man insisted on driving him to the hospital just to make sure. After a quick check-up, the man drove my grandpa to a restaurant where they ate lunch and talked about their mutual interests.

The subject turned to collecting and my grandpa mentioned that he had always been intrigued by the Morgan Silver Dollar but had managed to collect very few in good condition.

The man told my Grandpa that if he wanted a few bags of Morgans, he would sell them to him at below face value because...... "they were kinda sticky."

They arranged to meet later that week and the man arrived with three bags of Morgan silver dollars, broken open, in tattered, discolored bags, covered in black mold with all three bags stuck together as though they had been glued that way.

He promised my Grandfather that there were three thousand coins there and offered them for sale at $2,750.

My grandfather accepted the offer, paid the man, and loaded the broken bags in an old miner's trough in the back of his own truck and then covered them with a canvas tarp. He drove home and then spent several years separating and tagging each coin but never cleaning any of them. He felt they would be the most valuable left as he had received them (By the way, the bags only yielded $2659.00 but my Grandpa still thought he had made a great deal.)

In 1974, a picture of the man who hit my grandfather and sold him the Morgans appeared in the local newspaper along with a story about a hoard of Morgan silver dollars which were found at his estate.

The peach juice has almost become an anti-climax to the story for numismatists who have heard about this man.

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Essay #2
The Path Of America's Indian: Changes In The Depiction Of The American Indian On Regular Issue American Coinage From Longacre To Fraser
by Steven Roach

"We all long to live in interesting times. Yet it is the rare individual who recognizes the true significance of an era, capitalizes on it, and leaves a lasting contribution to society."

-- (Ballinger 10)

Lewis and Clark's expedition opened up a world of natural wonders which came to be part of America as a result of the Louisiana Purchase. Reports of these marvels set America's imagination ablaze. Even more fascinating to most people were the Indians who inhabited such rugged terrain. Artists found them irresistible, and much of the artist's work constitutes a record of the groups they illustrated. "The first great examples of western American art began to appear in the late 1820s, at about the time the initial period of exploration was reaching its climax and the great migration to the far west was just starting" (Hassrick 13). It has been said that American art of the late nineteenth century seems to owe more to theatrics than to observation. As the twentieth century emerged, the Indian became a vanishing species and the artist's depiction of the West changed to represent it as it had been, and to memorialize the American Indian. Changes in the depiction of the American Indian have been as varied as the Indians themselves, but it has not of itself been any guarantee of quality art. At best, the pieces are expressive, emotional, and personal, but at worst, the Indian has merely been a form of genre which is stereotyped, overblown, and repetitive.

The first American coin to deal with an Indian inspired theme was the three dollar gold coins issued to facilitate the purchase of postage stamps, but they saw sparse circulation. "Iconographically this type of Indian maiden had occurred in American patriotic and primitive paintings for many years past" (Vermuele 55). On these issues, typical beauties are placed in bonnets reminiscent of the typical cigar store Indian. "The fabricated bonnet, elaborate and feathered, was for ceremonial occasions, usually donned only to meet an enemy in a peace council, or to drive a lance through him in war... around the camp or when traveling, most Indians went bareheaded" (Renner 48). Liberty's headdress resembles nothing ever seen by an American Indian, rather it is more like a regal crown of feathers, showing none of the fortitude and strength of twentieth century issues.

James B. Longacre modified the bonnet in 1858, creating a less severe and more flowing headdress. Headdresses were one of Longacre's strengths. "The one area in which Longacre gave free reign to his imagination was in matter of fancy headdress for his renderings of Liberty. His caps of feathers, his bonnets of freedom, and his starry diadems are joys to behold" (Vermuele 51). The final result was the Indian cent of 1859 to 1909, which was really the same allegorical liberty as on the previous gold issues, but with an Indian headdress. While the design lacks realism and inspiration, the piece "Became perhaps the most beloved and typically American of any piece great or small in the American series" (Vermuele 55).

It is often suggested that Longacre's daughter, Sarah served as a model for the Liberty figure. An account appearing in a 1906 issue of The American Journal of Numismatics relates the story of a delegation of Indians from the West who were taken to see the Mint in Philadelphia. Miss Sarah Longacre attracted the attention of the chief who removed his ornately feathered headdress and placed it on Sarah's head. From this alleged meeting, the conventional Phrygian cap from John Reich's Bust coinage was transformed into an American Indian bonnet. The story of Sarah Longacre is partly based on fact, and partly on legend. Vermuele states that the story is result of an "American public desperate to trade the classical ideal of Liberty for someone of flesh and blood rather than gilt bronze and marble, and the girlish features of Longacre's goddess seemed to give them opportunity." (Vermuele 56). Nevertheless, if not based entirely on fact, the story certainly serves to accentuate the charm of Longacre's Indian head cent.

As the dawn of the twentieth century arose, a critical public demanded designs which reflected the rapid changes in society. Associated with Rough Riders, American Indians and a rugged individualism, President Theodore Roosevelt had visions for a coinage that transcended Charles Barber's and Longacre's mediocrity. If a change was needed due to public criticism, the need was solidified with the production of official medals. The inauguration medal produced for Roosevelt designed by Chief Engravers Charles Barber and George Morgan was simpy commercial mediocrity, derived from French cliches. From outside the Mint, artists were capable of creating masterpieces. The medal designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and executed in the dies by Adolph A. Weinman pleased Roosevelt immensely. Derived from the classical tradition of Renaissance sculptors such as Pisanello and Sperandio, the second medal illustrated the immense talent available outside the mint, and accentuated the mediocrity of the Mint's internal staffing.

The first redesigned coin for Roosevelt's term was the Eagle, the ten dollar gold piece. Saint-Gaudens' vision was for a Liberty who lacked the traditional opulent headdress, but it was Roosevelt who desired a headdress on the coinage. In preliminary studies by Saint-Gaudens, naturalistic hair is bunned and an exemplary laurel wreath transforms Liberty into a Pergamene Nike. When comparing the original design and the one which ultimately appeared on coinage, the headdress looks as if it is placed discreetly over the laureled design, with the same tendrils flowing out in both pieces. Although overt in its classical influences, Saint-Gaudens' Indian is an improvement from Longacre's attempt. With all of its merits, the coin was yet to reflect the ruggedness and depth of the American Indian as shown on later issues. These first Indians on coinage are not authentic Indians. Through the work of many artists of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, "A sort of mythical West was slowly superimposed on the real west. Like all myths this was less and more than the reality that it sought to interpret. As time passed, many Americans found it increasingly difficult to keep these visions separate (Hassrick 29). If these images left the viewer in doubt, there would be no questions regarding the origins of the strong images of Bela Lyon Pratt and James Fraser.

In the twentieth century, the focus of the Western artists such as Frederc Remington and Charles M. Russell, was to depict a West which was once familiar, but had now disappeared forever. They were determined to memorialize that vanished image of the great West in their art, thus becoming painters who deliberately represented the West not as it was in their own time, but as it had been. With the 1908 minting of Bela Lyon Pratt's coinage of the quarter-Eagle and half-Eagle, finally a real Indian graced American coinage. In Pratt's coinage, the mint showed a new sensitivity towards that struggle of the Native American and his plight. Unlike the previous designs of Longacre or even Saint-Gaudens, the Indians here, with his rugged features, wears a realistic war bonnet far more opulent than those of Longacre or even Saint-Gaudens. Finally, a robust Indian contrasts the earlier issues and a new vogue for real Indians over girls in bonnets touched coinage.

The exotic nature of these two pieces is enhanced by their sunken, or incused relief. William Sturgis Bigelow appears to have started the idea of an incuse relief for modern coinage, for he was a collector of Eastern art which utilized this technique. Using a photograph of a genuine native American rather than the Indians of popular culture, the pieces "Show more imagination and daring of design than almost any other issue in American history" (Vermuele 121). Through Pratt's coinage, a photographic naturalism emerged, providing a starting point for modern American coinage design.

If the trend for genuine natives was suggested by Pratt, it was perfected by James Fraser with his buffalo, or Indian Head nickel in 1913. A pupil of Saint-Gaudens, he was a versatile sculptor praised for his Indian themes. Drawing from his experience in creating sculptures such as The End of the Trail, Fraser's Buffalo nickel may serve as the ultimate homage to the native American. Its rough naturalness depicts the American Indians' true rugged nature. As with the Indian head cent, a public was eager to find a specific person as the inspiration for the design. Fraser's Indian was a composite portrait of three different men: a Sioux chief named Iron Trail, a Cheyenne chief named Two Moons, and a third who's name Fraser had forgotten. Regardless of the model, the coins are works of art, in their strength, form and technique.

While the obverse features an Indian, the reverse features an equally American theme, a great buffalo. "No one will ever know the exact number of buffalo that roamed the Great Plains but Ernest Thomson Seton's estimate of sixty million is probably as authoritative as any" (Renner 24). The twentieth century brought with it the demise of the buffalo, and just like the Indian, the buffalo serves as a memorial to the past. Amongst the finest depiction of any animal on any coinage, the piece is able to convey the fortitude and nature of the buffalo with just a profile view. With the genuine Indian, and the grand buffalo, Fraser's nickel serves as a fitting memorial to a culture which was nearly gone.

Much like the paintings and sculptures of Charles M. Russel , the Indians on Pratt's and Fraser's coinage make one remember the clash of Indian war parties and the cowboys on the wildly pitching broncos. At a time when the main interest in Indians was to get rid of them as quickly as possible, these artist saw the Indians as individuals with customs and traditions that commanded respect. It can be said that these coins have a universal appeal to your eyes and emotions. Starting with Liberty in an Indian headdress on Longacre's coinage, Fraser's Buffalo nickel completes the evolution of the American Indian on regular issue American coinage.

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Essay # 3
Historical Women Versus Historical Men: Looking To The Past To Find The Answer To The New Dollar Coin Design
by Kristen Marie

Imagine that the year is 2000. A seven year old girl walks all the way to the grocery store just to buy a pack of chewing gum. She plunges her hand into the depths of her pocket. As she sprawls her hard-earned coins across the counter, she detects the sought after coin. She overlooks the men, the past presidents and grasps the coin with a familiar likeness. The dollar coin depicts what that little girl hopes to be in the future; a woman who successfully takes on life's challenges and, in turn, influences others' lives, as well as history. At her young age, the little girl may not know who the historical woman is, but she can quickly identify the coin and be proud of it too.

The decision to introduce a new golden-colored dollar coin into circulation in the year 2000 brings much debate over subject material and design. Factions of people seem to have quite varying views and opinions on the matter. In the beginning of the debate over subject material, some people backed the likeness of an astronaut while others pleaded "Ladies first!" Of course, it is a fact that real American women have been notably absent from money of all types, though women personified as "Liberty" have appeared since the earliest coinage. To the cheers of women's rights supporters, the mint recently confirmed the depiction of a female figure on the new dollar coin. The decision, however, leads to new questions: Should the design consist of a female figure in American history or a representative female such as "Liberty?" The answers remain unknown at present. As with any debate, there is a body of evidence supporting the claim that historical women are far less represented on United States coinage than historical men. Also, there is a recent history that reveals the controversy of creating the design for this new dollar coin.

Both ancient and modern coins carry the likeness of real and mythical people, animals, birds, plants, and weaponry. Coins depict places, buildings, ships, and coliseums. Just by looking at coins, historians can study art, styles of dress, hairdos, modes of transportation, and sports. The Greek and Romans were the pioneers of designing coins with portraits of gods and leaders. This symbol of honor later became an adopted technique used by the United States when designing coins. The first coins designed by the U.S. were aimed at symbolizing some wondrous quality of America. The goddess Liberty captured the essence of unextinguished freedom.

The allegorical Liberty designs originated as a result of the Mint Act of 1792. Section 10 declared that the United States coins must be designed with themes 'emblematic of liberty.' Therefore, only three designs were authorized for use during the legislation: the head or figure of Liberty, the eagle, and a wreath. Even though other designs were not permitted, slight variations in these designs were allowed in the early experimental years. For example, the first silver half-dollar Liberty head had flowing hair (1794-5), whereas she was later given a cap (1807). Over the years, Liberty has been portrayed as standing, walking, or seated with differences in design of hair or bust.

With the dawn of the twentieth century, new developments and trends in coinage shaped the hobby of numismatics, as well as affected the designs of the present day circulating coins. An outstanding innovation was the introduction of new designs which replaced the stereotyped images of Liberty of the nineteenth century. The Indian Head nickel is a classic example, even though it soon lost its place to Thomas Jefferson. Another novelty of the twentieth century was the introduction of the portraits of past presidents on the obverses of coins. Abraham Lincoln's portrait on the cent began the trend in 1909. The last of the allegorical designs of Liberty lost out to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Benjamin Franklin (although he was never a president) in 1946 and 1948, respectively. The transformation of the nation's circulation coinage occurred in 1964 when the late president John F. Kennedy replaced Benjamin Franklin on the half-dollar. The Dwight D. Eisenhower dollar was added to circulation seven years later. After this transformation, the Liberty design coins became merely a collectible from the past.

Introduced in 1892, commemorative coins were intended to be collectibles. The subject of commemorative coins leads to the first historical woman pictured on a U.S. coin. Oddly enough, the woman was not even an American. In 1893, the Queen Isabella quarter dollar was issued for the World's Columbian Exposition. Queen Isabella was truly an interesting choice to be featured, mostly because she had been the monarch of Spain. Just before the turn of the century, Spain and the United States fought a war over Cuba, an island founded by Christopher Columbus on his first voyage, which was funded by Isabella. Even though the Isabella quarters were a flop at the Exposition, the barrier was broken in portraying actual persons on U.S. coins.

In wasn't until 1937, after the passage of many commemorative coins that depicted men, that another woman would again be pictured on a U.S. coin. The Roanoke Colonization Anniversary half dollar depicts Eleanor Dare holding the infant Virginia Dare. The coin commemorates not only the colonization of Roanoke Island, but the birth of the first child born to English parents in America.

Then, in the mid-1970s, discussions began about replacing the bulky Eisenhower dollar with a smaller sized coin. Would this possibly be the opportunity to return Lady Liberty? Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin opposed the allegorical female and favored a real American woman. He suggested the portrait of Susan B. Anthony. This pioneer of women's rights, including suffrage, was appropriate in a decade of heightened sensitivity to women's issues. Frank Gasparro, Chief Engraver of the U.S. mint at the time, created the design and the coins were issued from 1979-81. Thus, Anthony became the first historical (American) woman to be featured on a circulating U.S. coin. The small sized coin was confused with the quarter, leading the Anthony dollar to fail to obtain widespread public acceptance. Other opponents of the coin, many of them collectors, objected to Anthony's religious views or "ugly physical appearance as compared to the beauty of Lady Liberty.

The last woman depicted on a U.S. coin was also disapproved because of her physical appearance. In 1995, Congress chose to honor the Special Olympics, a program founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Being featured on this commemorative coin, she became the first living American woman to appear on a U.S. coin.

The newest dollar set for release in the year 2000 has brought about a controversy over which obverse design should be featured; by law, the reverse of a coin must display an eagle. Before the confirmation to depict a female figure, there was a push for an astronaut design. Donald Carr's design was an American astronaut standing on the surface of the moon. The coin suggests a futuristic 21st century approach, but man last stood on the moon in 1972. Also, the shrinking budget for space exploration and a national ambivalence to explore the final frontier would diminish the potential of the coin. The design still had its supporters, at least among special interest groups and non-collectors.

The beautiful Flowing Hair liberty design of Ron Landis was the favorite among numismatists. The Liberty head would be a return to the classics of the 18th and 19th centuries. To the disappointment of many people. Landis withdrew support of his Flowing Hair Liberty design for the new dollar coin. Its supporters, although disappointed, then backed the Statue of Liberty design. The Statue of Liberty is, after all, the symbol of America. Advocates want to return to this artistic representation of what the United States really stands for. The only obstacle my be that the Statue of Liberty was the subject of many recent commemorative coins.

Other people believe that it is time to honor another woman or women from history. Sacagawea, the Shoshone guide to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, has been the subject of limited popular support. The depiction of 19th century feminists Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott on the same obverse is also a possibility. Or what about Eleanor Roosevelt? There are so many worthy choices. However, whoever is depicted on the coin, there will be those who object. Criticism will be rampant about woman's political views, religious views, or physical appearance. Whatever the outcome may be, history is in the making.

The Dollar Coin Design Advisory Committee, established by the Secretary of Treasury, Robert E. Rubin, is expected to meet June 9-10 at the Philadelphia Mint to select a design concept. The U.S. Mint engravers will then translate the thematic concept onto coinable art. The final decision on design should be completed by September of 1998. Production of the dollar coins will begin in December of 1999 for release in early 2000.