1903 Morgan Dollar Question

The 1903-S is way more valuable than the 1903-O by thousands of dollars! The 1903-P is the least valuable. I'm not sure where you got your info that the 1903-O is more valuable than the 1903-S but that info is wrong. The 3 coins fall in line with mintage and value. The MS60 value of 03-O is about $400 the 03-S in MS60 is about $4,000. In MS63 the 03-O is $425 and the 03-S is about $6,000.

I see now...I was looking in an older Red Book and the value of the 1903-O is more than the 1903-S in VF condition. After the VF condition the 1903-S jumps way ahead.

The 1903-O was once considered rare-- that is until the Treasury released several bags of them in the 1960s.

MeadowviewCollector has the answer. Back before 1963 the 03-O was the key to the Morgan dollar set, much more so than the 93-S (The 98-O was also a major key) The 03-O was rare in any grade and extremely so in MS with only about six specimens known. But then around Christmas of 1963, when dollars were being released for Christmas gifts several BAGS of MS 1903-O dollars were dumped on the market. The MS 03-O dropped from over $1,500 (in 1963 dollars, about $15,000 in today's dollars) to $5 - $10. Bags of several other key dates also turned up. (including a few bags of MS Seated dollars!, mainly 59-O and 60-O.) This started the huge run on silver dollars from the Treasury. It was a can't lose lottery. Give them silver certificates and get back silver dollars worth at least as much as the face value of the silver certificates, with the chance of some future profit from the rising value of the silver in them (which was already almost equal to the face value), and the chance of receiving some coins worth well more than the face value.