Q. David Bowers
Other Morgan Dollars
I remember having a bag of 1878 dollars with the reverse of 1879 [third reverse] and a bag of 1879-S with the reverse of 1878 [second reverse].
I never saw any Uncirculated 1901 [Philadelphia Mint] dollars in bags, nor did I ever handle any quantity of 1894-S, although both of these would show up in worn grades in bags. I remember selling Steve Markoff 10 rolls of Uncirculated 1893 [Philadelphia] dollars, which is a better date, but I don't remember where I got them.
There were many bags of Uncirculated 1891 and 1892 Philadelphia Mint dollars, and in the early 1960s these dates were a drug on the market. Whenever I would go to a bank in Philadelphia to get some Uncirculated dollars, all they would have would be 1891s, which nobody wanted. After a while, I came to believe that the 1891 Morgan dollar was the most common coin ever minted.
I always liked 1899 dollars, and I must have owned about 10 bags of them. This date mainly came out in Las Vegas. I had many contacts in Las Vegas in those days, with the guys in the money rooms of the casinos. They all dealt in coins. I remember buying three bags of 1878-CC dollars from guys in Las Vegas. I also bought bags of 1878 dollars with eight tail feathers. Charlie Dochkus did not have these, but the people in Vegas did.
The Bridwell Report
There was a guy by the name of "Curly" Stansbury, who was an oil man out in Long Beach [California]. He was one of the early big investors in silver dollars, and I sold him hundreds of bags of silver dollars when they were $1,100 to $1,200 a bag.
This reminds me that I must tell you about Rodger Bridwell and The Bridwell Report. I think it fits in, and it put me in the center of the dollar business in Washington. It was in 1964, I think, when I was ready to close down my business and go on vacation. I promised Ruth that we were going to close for two weeks .. No sooner had Ruth and I planned to shut things down, than I received a check in the mail for $1,050 with a request to have me ship a bag of mint-sealed silver dollars. I wasn't expecting the order, and we hadn't advertised any such things.
Ruth said, "Well, we may as well cash the check. I can go to the bank and get a bag of dollars, and it only costs $5 to ship the bag by Railway Express."
The next day I got two checks. Ruth asked me, "Do we have an ad for these running anywhere?" I said, "I don't know. Maybe somebody recommended me." The next day a guy called up and asked, "Can I come with a cashier's check and get three bags of mint-sealed dollars from you at $1,050 a bag?" "Where are you getting your information," I asked. "From the Bridwell Report. '" I said, "Do you have the report?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Well, I'll give them to you if you bring me the newsletter." The guy came in with a cashier's check for $3,150, and I gave him the three bags of dollars.
That was my introduction to Rodger Bridwell.' In his Bridwell Report he stated that he felt that silver dollars were a good investment, that the government was running out, that they were made of silver, and that a good, reputable dealer to buy honest mint-sewn bags from was Harry J. Forman of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I said to Ruth, "Gee, this is interesting." (In a letter to the author, April 28, 1992, Rodger W. Bridwell recalled the day that Harry J. Forman told him how he could get bags of silver dollars very inexpensively. "A few days later 29 bags were sitting on the floor of my office." He also recalled selling quantities of 1878-CC dollars, by then a slightly scarcer date, for $65 per roll and $3,850 per bag of 1,000 coins.)
The next day we got 10 checks, and the day after that we got 50 checks. Soon, we were in the middle of a huge business in dollar bags. Ruth and I each had Cadillacs. Every day we would wire $50,000 to the Riggs National Bank in Washington, which was right across the street from the Treasury Department. I would then go to Riggs and get $50,000 in cash, and walk across the street to the Treasury with it. There was a traffic cop at that point, and I would say to him, "I'm carrying a lot of cash in my pockets, will you watch me cross the street?" I would then toss him a silver dollar as a tip.
I would get the 50 bags of dollars on a hand truck, and then load 25 bags into each Cadillac. We would take 25 bags to the Washington airport and send them air freight, and 25 bags would be sent by Railway Express. This routine went on for a couple of weeks. Now, Ruth and I were not looking at the bags, but we always bought a few bags for our own account and took them back to Philadelphia. One time we did this, and it was a bag filled with 1885-O Morgans. I said, "Holy smoke, they're giving out Morgans." We knew that the Treasury Department had 2,000 bags of Peace dollars, and they wanted to pay these out first, but once they got rid of the Peace dollars, then they would have no choice but to start paying out Morgans.
The next day we bought 50 bags of dollars for our own business. When we got back to the office we opened the bags to make sure they were Morgans, which they were. There were no rare dates. I remember selling those 50 bags to a dealer at the time by the name of Jules Steinman out in Pasadena. He's still around; I think he owns a pawn shop. He was a big coin dealer for a while. Dorothy Gershenson washis partner on many deals. He and Dorothy were very good friends.
The End of the Dollars
Eventually, I stopped accepting checks for $1,050. The market was going up. There was a local accountant who got into the game. He found that you could get silver dollars locally for $1,000 a bag, butt hey were worth $1,200 a bag on the market. He called every silver dollar dealer in the country-Blaise Dantone, Shotgun Slade, and others, and said, "Hey, I'll sell you all the bags of Morgan dollars you want." Well, coin dealers aren't exactly dumb, as you are aware. Dealers figured that either a bunch of silver dollar bags were breaking in Philadelphia, or that they were coming out of the Treasury in Washington. A great rush happened, and, if you remember, that is when people stood in long lines that went around the block, to get bags of dollars. Soon, all were gone.
Additional Reminiscences
The following comments, slightly edited, are from another interview conducted with Harry J. Forman by the author: (September 9,1992. Additional items from a letter to the author, September 25, 1992.)