Morgan Dollars (1878-1921)

Now we come to Morgan silver dollars, the most active series among older coins in American numismatics. As noted earlier in the present guide, Morgan dollars were first minted in 1878, although no one particularly wanted or needed them. By that time silver had fallen to a low point on the world markets, and in silver-mining areas, unemployment was rife and the economic outlook was grim. There simply was no market for the vast quantities of silver being brought up from the Comstock Lode in Nevada and from the hills west of Denver. True to time honored American tradition, politicians stepped into the situation and suggested that Uncle Sam purchase millions of ounces of silver in order to buoy the market.

What to do with this unneeded, unwanted silver? Coining it into dollars was the most expedient plan. George T. Morgan, who had come to the Mint from England in 1876, and who in 1877 had posed Philadelphia schoolteacher Anna Willess Williams and had copied her portrait for use on a pattern half dollar, was commissioned to create a new silver dollar design. Early in the year 1878 his 1877 half dollar die ideas were dusted off, expanded into silver dollar form, and what was called the Bland Dollar (after the Bland-Allison Act of 1878, which caused the government to buy silver), became a reality. Later, collectors were to know the coins as Morgan dollars.

The engraver's initial M appears at the truncation of the neck of Miss Liberty on the obverse and at the wreath ribbon on the reverse. In the numismatic field complaints were rife about the Morgan dollar. The eagle resembled a turkey or, worse, a buzzard, and in any event the whole motif was exceedingly inartistic, according to comments printed in the American Journal of Numismatics and elsewhere. Morgan dollars were without honor in their own time, and during the early years of their coinage, 1878 through 1904, very few numismatists bothered to collect them. Those who were interested were apt to buy Proofs of the Philadelphia Mint issues. So far as I know, during the 1870s and 1880s not a single collector desired to own Carson City, San Francisco, or New Orleans pieces! Of course, this makes amazing reading today, but that's what the situation was back then.

The various mints continued to produce silver dollars in staggering quantities, bagging them and storing them in vaults. Problems arose, and at one time the huge storage vault in the Philadelphia Mint became damp, the cloth bags which contained 1,000 dollars each rotted, and chaos ensued. Other facilities were pressed into use for storage, including the San Francisco and New Orleans mints and the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. No one knew what to do with all of these round discs.