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Morgan Silver Dollars

Welcome to the Morgan Coin Shop. Your home for great deals on Morgan Silver Dollars. The Morgan Dollar, named after its designer, George T Morgan, was a silver dollar produced by the United States government between 1878 and 1921. However, the main minting period was from 1878 until 1904, with the Morgan Dollar making a reappearance for one year only in 1921. The story of the Morgan Dollar begins as most stories involving money and the government do, with lobbies and political interests.

How the Morgan Silver Dollar Came to Be

In Nevada, the Comstock Lode was bringing in massive amounts of silver, in the tens of millions of dollars every year in the 1870s. One side effect of this influx of silver into the market was that prices also were going down. Those with silver interests certainly didn’t like that, and they didn’t like that the government had ceased producing the previous silver dollar, the Liberty Seated Dollar, in 1873.

After several years of clawing, and most certainly bribing and cajoling, Congress passed the Brand-Allison Act. With this legislature came the requirement of Treasury to purchase a huge sum of silver every month. This would keep supply to the public lower, leaving prices high and it would also keep silver dollars in circulation and the silver mines loaded with business.

Details About the Morgan Dollar

The Morgan Silver Dollar is named for George Morgan, who ironically enough for the designer of an American silver dollar, is British. The head, or obverse side of the Morgan Dollar is a left facing headshot of Miss Liberty, whom Morgan modeled after an attractive friend.

The tails or reverse side of the coin features an eagle with wings spread, holding arrows and an olive branch. Initially the eagle had seven tail feathers, which were later corrected to eight.

Morgan Silver Dollars weren't very popular when they first came out. Many considered the eagle to be quite ugly and often called the coins "Buzzard Dollars". The coin was also called a "cartwheel" for its large size and weight. Because of these and other factors, Morgan Dollars sat in government vaults for years, fading into obscurity.

Including the initial run and one year reprisal, over 600 million Morgan Silver Dollars were produced. Unfortunately millions of Morgan Coins were melted down through the years, but many are still unaccounted for. There were still plenty of Morgan Dollars to go around however, since they only circulated in a few small areas.

Morgan Silver Dollars were minted, in addition to Philadelphia, in Carson City, Denver, San Francisco and New Orleans. The mint marks can be found under the tail feathers of the eagle, with coins made in Philadelphia having no mark.

The 1921 Rebirth and Afterwards

The Morgan Dollar was revived for one year in 1921 under the terms of the Pittman Act which in 1918 had ordered the melting and selling of many silver dollars. Some 270 million silver dollars were melted, the majority of which were original run Morgan Silver Dollars. In 1921 some 80 million Morgan Dollars were minted, following which, they were replaced by the Peace Dollar.

Just as the government saw fit to melt many Morgan Dollars into silver bullion, private consumers and investors have done the same. As silver prices increased in the middle of the 20th century, many coin collectors, investors and other profit-minded souls melted all of the Morgans they could get their hands on, to sell of as pure silver bullion.

The Resurgence of the Morgan Dollar

Around 1964, the Treasury had approximately 3 million Morgan Silver Coins left which were mainly scarce Carson City specimens that the GSA put up for public sale through mail bid auctions starting in 1972.

By 1980, as supplies dwindled down, the public's interest in Morgan Silver Dollars peaked. It didn't take long for the feeding frenzy to begin when an amazing discovery of more than 400,000 Morgan Coins were found in the basement of Nevada resident LaVere Redfield after his death in 1975.

Morgan Mania Hits

The Redfield discovery gave the Morgan Silver Dollar quite a bit of publicity and in the years to follow the Morgan Dollar finally came into its own as a very popular collectible. There are still a good amount of Morgan Dollars available today, and many are still in great condition.

You can find many of those great coins right here in the Morgan Coin Shop. Except for the rarest of them all, the 1895-plain. There are no business strike pieces known to exist. Is it out there? Perhaps. If it's ever found it will be one of the most amazing finds in American numismatics!

Enjoy!

P.S. We update the deals we find frequently throughout the day, so make sure to bookmark this site to be kept up to date on all the Morgan Silver Dollars available.