Why Does A Morgan Dollar Have More Silver Than 2 Barber Half Dollars (Etc)?

But by the time the Morgan dollar came out, silver had dropped well past the point where the metal was worth more than the face value. (A silver dollar has $1 worth of silver in it when silver is $1.29 an oz. In 1878 it was $1.10 an oz.) By the time of the Sherman Silver purchase act in 1890 silver was down to $1.06 and dropping. Sure it still had more silver than two half dollars but who cared? Two half dollars had 76 cents worth of silver in them and the silver dollar had 82 cents, but they could be SPENT for $1. By the time the Peace dollar came out silver was down to $0.66 an oz. A silver dollar had 51 cents worth of silver in it and two half dollars had 49 cents worth. (Silver finally reached bottom in 1932 at $0.25 an ounce.)

So it didn't make sense to swap two halves for Morgans or Peace dollars and hoard them or melt them down.

Was it the culture that drove people to hoard the silver dollars? I'd have to do some digging, but I recall reading that the Mint boasted in 1921/22 that they were going to make so many Peace dollars that they would circulate over the whole nation and nobody would ever hoard them or charge more than face for one.

Very interesting topic.