Q. David Bowers
From the Treasury to the G.S.A.
The wheels of progress moved slowly, and it was not until December 6, 1971-a year after the enabling act had been signed by President Nixon-that the cache of silver dollars was transferred from the Treasury to the General Services Administration. A quantity amounting to about 2.9 million coins, weighing about 87 tons, was trucked to the United States Bullion Depository on the grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
A few months later in March 1972 a group of numismatists and numismatic writers was allowed to make an inspection of several dozen coins selected to be representative examples, and to suggest grading standards to be applied to them. Included in the party were Margo Russell (editor of Coin World), Clifford Mishler (editor of Numismatic News), John Jay Pittman (ANA president), Henry Grunthal (curator of United States coins for the American Numismatic Society), and Amon G. Carter, Jr., Texas collector of silver dollars (and other coins), who was a member of the Joint Commission on the Coinage.
Eventually, a group of six women and several supervisors sorted the hoard. An analysis by Leroy C. Van Allen and A. George Mallis was based on G.S.A. records, and showed the following:'
1878-CC: 47,566 Uncirculated coins; 13,426 mixed culled coins (heavily tarnished, scratched, or with other problems); 1 Uncirculated coin set aside for inspection. Total: 60,993 pieces.
1879-CC: 3,632 Uncirculated, 490 culls, 1 for inspection. Total: 4,123 pieces.
1880-CC: 114,941 Uncirculated, 16,587 culls, 1 for inspection. Total: 131,529 pieces.
1881-CC: 122,708 Uncirculated, 24,776 culls, 1 for inspection. Total: 147,485 pieces.
1882-CC: 382,912 Uncirculated, 222,116 culls, 1 for inspection. Total: 605,029 pieces.
1883-CC: 523,852 Uncirculated, 231,665 culls, 1 for inspection. Total: 755,518 pieces.
1884-CC: 788,627 Uncirculated, 174,008 culls, 3 for inspection. Total: 962,638 pieces.
1885-CC: 130,822 Uncirculated, 17,462 culls, 1 for inspection. Total: 148,285 pieces
1889-CC: 1 Uncirculated. Total: 1 piece.
1890-CC: 3,609 Uncirculated, 339 culls, 1 for inspection. Total: 3,949 pieces.
1891-CC: 5,176 Uncirculated, 510 culls, 1 for inspection. Total: 5,687 pieces.
1892-CC: 1 Uncirculated. Total: 1 piece.
1893-CC: 1 Uncirculated. Total: 1 piece.
Various mixed Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco coins: 27,980 Uncirculated. Total: 27,980 pieces.
Various mixed Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco coins: 84,165 culls plus 311 deemed unsalable. Total: 84,476 pieces.
Grand total of all G.S.A. dollars: 2,937,695.
The G.S.A. Sales
The G.S.A. held a series of seven sales, with the first extending from October 1972 to March 1973, the second from June 1973 to July 1973, the third in October 1973, the fourth in February 1974, the fifth from April to June 1974, and two more sales in February and July 1980.
An unsigned article, "The Government's Surplus, Surplus Silver Dollars," in COINage Magazine, October 1973, brought readers up to date on the situation as of that time:
After Two Sales There Are a Million and a Half C.C. Dollars Left- And Here We Go On Another Round:
The government's problem with regard to the surplus silver dollars can be likened to that of the used car salesman who found himself with a lot of full cars he had to get rid of. What did he do? He had a gigantic sale, of course, and sold nearly half of them. But what about the half he didn't sell? Well our salesman pondered that one for a while, then came up with an answer that has been characteristic of his industry since it began, he held another gigantic sale.
The G.S.A., which handles the surplus silver dollars for the government, has just concluded its third gigantic sale for this year. The first was called "The Great Silver Dollar Sale"; the second, "The Great Silver Dollar Sale Extension" and this last one, "The Coins Jesse James Never Got!" Each time, after the sale, the G.S.A. was faced with the same problem, what to do with the coins the public never got. Its answer, as dictated by Congress, has been to try again and once more it has announced a sale to begin October 1.
As collectors know, the government had some three million silver dollars, most from the Carson City Mint, that it had been storing for almost a hundred years. These silver dollars had never been taken from Mint sewn bags and over the years they had appreciated in numismatic values. The issues which ranged from 1878-CC to 1885-CC and from 1890-CC to 1891-CC with a few coins from other dates thrown in were shuffled from one location to another until about two years ago when Congress dictated that they be sold at public auction for their numismatic value. The trouble is that the public did not buy all the coins offered at the first auction (about 700,000 of the 1.7 million were sold), only an additional hundred thousand or so were sold at the second sale (although nearly a million were offered) and about 400,000 of the over 1.5 million offered the third time around were purchased although five of the nine categories offered did sell out. This leaves the G.S.A. with a little over a million and a half coins to dispose of.
An analysis of the last sale shows the following:
Selection No. 1-mixed, circulated Morgan and Peace dollars from various mints. $3 minimum bid, 100,000 coins offered-sold out.
Selection No. 2-Unc. Morgan and Peace silver dollars that were mixed coins from various mints excluding Carson City. $3 minimum bid, 30,000 offered-sold out.
Selection No.3-Carson City silver dollars (mixed 1879-85, '90 and '91) never before circulated culled out of the government's holdings since they did not meet the standard for Unc. due to nicks and tarnish. $15 minimum bid, 130,000 sold, about 550,000 remaining.
Selection No. 4-:1878 Unc. Carson City silver dollars. $15 minimum bid, 50,000 offered-sold out
Selection No. 5-1890 Carson City Unc. silver dollars.
Minimum bid, 4,000 offered-sold out.
Selection No. 6-1884 Carson City Unc. silver dollars. Minimum bid was $30, 45,000 sold-about 450,000 remaining.
Selection No. 7-1891-CC Unc. silver dollars. Minimum bid was $30- 5,000 offered-sold out.
Selection No. 8-1882-CC Unc. silver dollars. Minimum bid was $30, 40,000 sold, about 50,000 left.
Selection No. 9-1883-CC Unc. silver dollars. Minimum bid was $30, 30,000 sold-235,000 left.
Of the five areas that sold out, all were in categories that contained less than 100,000 coins each. Two of the five con-tained less than 5,000 each. All of which must leave the G.S.A. pondering the question of what to do with those big categories, the '83s, the '84s and the "culls," some having gone through three sales and refusing to be sold out. Will another gigantic sale truly help here?