Q. David Bowers
Politics
The elections of 1896 and 1900 were fought over the silver question. William Jennings Bryan was now the spokesman for the populists. Harrison was a Republican and Bryan a Democrat but party labels were of slight importance in the silver struggle. Republican William McKinley, who held the same views on hard money as Democrat Grover Cleveland, won in both elections. The silver question was, for the time being, a dead letter in American politics. The Silverites and populists had lost.
In June 1898 the McKinley administration made a small gesture to the populists by promoting a law requiring the mints to coin the silver on hand into dollars. Mine owners were afraid it would be dumped on the open market. This is the reason that coinage extended through 1904, when supplies of bullion finally became exhausted. From 1904 to 1921 there was little interest in coining dollars.
Late Anomalies
One curious event that has interested modern collectors came in 1899 when old presses from the closed Carson City Mint were readied for use elsewhere. At least six reverse dies were found that had never been hardened; they were returned to the Engraving Department at Philadelphia and repunched with an "0" mintmark for New Orleans. The 1900-O/CC coins have been popular with numismatists for some years.
From 1893 to 1898 there were occasional low points of silver dollar coinage because of pressure from other demominations. The 1895 Philadelphia Issue IS a classic case with only 12,000 circulation strikes made. These were not released and wound up being melted in 1918. The only pieces available to collectors are the 880 Proof coins of that year, Which bring increasingly higher prices for superior specimens.
The Engraving Department produced a new reverse hub in 1900. This is notable for a wide U-shaped space between the back of the neck and wing, minor changes in the branch, and larger stars. New reverse dies were used in all dates and mintmarks from 1900 to 1904, except 1900-O, while leftover dies were used up, in some instances by being re-impressed with the new hubs.
The Pittman Act
Because of the economic problems arising from World War I, the government ordered the melting of 270 million Morgan dollars for the British government. The Pittman Act of April 1918, which authorized this action, required the government to replace the coins as soon as it was expedient to do so. The requirement was nothing less than a subsidy to the silver industry as there was no commercial demand for these 270 million dollars that had been melted. The price of silver was very high in 1919-1920 but dropped back to normal levels in 1920, and silver was once more purchased by the Treasury.
Although a new design could have been used in 1921, the Treasury decided to continue the Morgan design for the recoinage under the Pittman Act. In 1910 the Treasury had ordered the destruction of all non-current hubs to prevent misuse; dollars were included. No one then believed that coinage would resume in the foreseeable future-too many were still on hand, unwanted, in government vaults. In early 1921 George T. Morgan was thus forced to execute a fresh set of obverse and reverse hubs for the coinage whichresumed in May 1921. Agitation soon arose for a new design, and this is discussed under the Peace dollar chapters.
Farran Zerbe persuaded authorities to let him have Morgan dollars with special surfaces (probably mtended as Proofs, but the result was more like a prooflike coin) made at the Philadelphia and San Francisco Mints in 1921. Henry Chapman, another well-known numismatist, was able to get several struck at Philadelphia. Chapman got his directly through George T. Morgan. Morgan dollars were last struck in December 1921.
The Morgan dollars of 1921, from all three mints, are extremely common and easily obtained by the collector. In fact, Morgan dollars in general could be obtained at banks throughout the country until the early part of 1962, when the supply began to tighten up. Many collectors who specialized in Morgans simply went through bank rolls and bags looking for the scarcer issues. Dates as early as 1878 were usually found with ease, though most of the coins were of the 1880s or 1921.
The rising popularity of silver dollars caused a great run on the remaining Treasury hoard until 1964, when the government halted sales with only about 3 million (mostly Carson City) left on hand. These were sold in a special series of auction sales by the General Services Administration from 1972 to 1974 which realized $55 million. The price of silver did not pass $1.29 (the break-even point for bullion in the dollar) until July 1967 and from then on silver dollars had a bullion value higher than their face value.