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 Replies: 6 / Views: 1,088 |
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Valued Member
United States
122 Posts |
compared with other coins? I have about 20 Morgans & they're almost all UNC, while my WL halves, Peace dollars, Mercury dimes & other coins from 50-75 years later are tough to find in the same kind of condition. I saw a smooth circulated Morgan in a coin store this weekend & had to look at it twice to figure out what it was, because I'd hardly ever seen one with wear before |
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
A significant percentage of the Morgans still around spent most of their time in Treasury bags, and weren't released to the public during the years they actually circulated. They actually didn't circulate much - mostly in the West - and tended to get hoarded. Even though millions were melted for silver content, they were still easily available at face value from banks through the 30's, 40's and 50's, and the government finally auctioned off its' remaining 2.9 million Morgans starting in 1972. Ever heard of the Redfield Hoard? Mr. Redfield hoarded Morgans throughout his lifetime, and upon his death in 1974 it was discovered he had 411,000 Morgans stashed in bags, mostly Uncirculated. They also entered the collectors' market. That's why there's lots of uncirculated Morgans around.  |
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Valued Member
United States
245 Posts |
IMO they are dirt cheap, too cheap for mint anything. Can you tell I have a lot of mint Morgans.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1152 Posts |
My Great Aunt used to tell stories about going to Vegas and getting payouts in Morgan dollars direct from the slot machines! Of course they used to also scratch the mint marks off- not really sure why though. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Basically the Morgan dollar was not made because they needed silver dollars. They were a political sop for the silver mining interests. An attempt to support the falling silver prices that were resulting form overproduction by the silver mines. It was also a way to inflate the money supply and try to give a little boost to the economy. But since no one wanted to carry around bulky, heavy silver dollars, most of them were coined, placed straight into the vaults and used to back silver certificates which were issued in their place. And since the people preferred the paper the coin continued to sit in the vaults until the great run on the Treasury silver dollars that started in 1963 (Some coins trickled out of the vaults each year for commerce and for Christmas presents, but in 1963 it turned into a stampede as the value of the silver in the coins began to exceed their face value, and several bags of, until then, extremely rare date and mint dollars were handed out at face value. People realized ther was treasure in those vaults and by God they were going to get theirs! So the dollars never really circulated. They were coined, put away for unworn for 35 to 90 years, then handed out to other who then hoarded them rather tha spending them. This means that probably a good 90% of all the dollars that were made and still survive are Uncirculated. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5610 Posts |
I also believe that when most people in the rush of the "60's and 70's "most of the people who were fortunate to get those MORGANS in their hands, put most away, and passed down through the family till the heirs needed cash and then they were released to the public again, slowly but steady and this is still going on today.I would not have the "few" I do if this were not so.PS:only I hope to never let mine go!!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
764 Posts |
Morgan dollars are such an interesting series because there are so many factors that go into the value of one and each date is different. for example, an 1884S in mid-circulated condition can be had for $20, but an uncirculated one is in the thousands and a gem is in hundreds of thousands. an 1885CC however is about $500 low grade and only $600 in uncirculated. the "more common" 1889CC is tens of thousands for an uncirculated example. another interesting fact is the 1903 branch mint dollars. in low grade condition, the 1903O is several times more valuable than the 1903S. in uncirculated condition, the 1903S is many times more valuable than the 1903O. most coin series have only two factors that affect value: mintage and grade. morgans have mintage, grade, percentage melted, percentage that sat in vaults for 100 years, percentage exported overseas, and stike quality.
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Replies: 6 / Views: 1,088 |
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Posted 12/22/2008 1:58 pm
