Do Any / Many OBW Rolls Or Original Mint Bags Of Morgans Really Exist?

Quote:
By reliable information, a number of original bags of 1859-O and 1860-O Seated Liberty dollars were included, at random, in the release.

Quote:
To obtain silver dollars the banks would place an order through the Federal Reserve System, in this instance to the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank. Back would come silver dollars in $1,000 bags. These would fall into two categories: mixed bags with circulated coins, and Uncirculated bags—the latter containing just one date mintmark variety per bag.
More often than not the Uncirculated bags consisted of Philadelphia Mint coins. Issues from 1878 to the late 1880s were particularly common. At that time they were worth just face value, $1 each. Had I possessed the financial ability and desire I could have bought 5,000,000 silver dollars, 50,000,000 of them, or 200,000,000 of them—no one else wanted them or cared!

Searching through silver dollars would produce a scattering of dates and mintmarks. I remember finding a number of worn 1885 Carson City issues and saving them as duplicates for they were worth a small premium. 1892-S was slightly scarce, and some of those were saved also. I never did find an1893-S. With the exception of the 1895, all dates 1878 through 1904 were available. I even found a couple of 1903-0 dollars, but they were well worn.

Other bags came on the market, and thousands of coins changed hands. In the beginning this was like finding gold in the streets. Although the 1903-0 dollar obviously was no longer worth $1,500, it still was exciting to have them by the hundreds and by the thousands. In fact, it was almost unbelievable! Throughout 1963 the demand increased. After all, what could one lose? Go to the bank, spend a thousand dollars for a bag of dollars, take it home—and if it contained worn issues of little value you still broke even. On the other hand, you might be surprised, as one San Francisco gentleman was, with a bag full of 1889 Carson City dollars!

It helped to have a friend in the Treasury Department. In 1963, as bags were pouring out of the Treasury by the thousands, more and more scarce dates came to light. One buyer befriended an employee who had access to the main storage vaults. Silver dollars were in sealed bags, so breaking the seal to examine the dates would have raised all sorts of complications—including having to recount the pieces. A simple procedure was devised whereby thousands of bags were "peeked" at by making a tiny hole in the bag, sometimes with a lighted tip of a cigarette, and then manipulating the cloth surface so that the date and mintmark of the coins could be ascertained by peeping through the hole. While the ethics of this practice certainly might be questioned, it did result in quite a few bags of rare dates being channeled directly into numismatics rather than to the general public.

While most Treasury finds were limited to Morgan dollars (mainly) and Peace dollars, a few earlier dollars were involved as well.

At least one bag each came to light of 1859-0 and 1860-0 Liberty Seated dollars. In the intervening years since 1963 these have been widely dispersed among collectors. A bag of 1871 Uncirculated silver dollars came to light and was purchased intact by an investor who, as of this writing, still possesses it. A New York City coin dealer told John J. Ford, Jr. that his firm purchased and "put away" a bag of Uncirculated 1868 dollars.

At least several bags of worn, mixed Liberty Seated dollars were found. Jim Ruddy and I purchased a quantity of these in 1963 through an agent who had obtained them in Detroit. Ohio dealer James F. Kelly, who later with Max Humbert, Michael V. DiSalle, Jim Ruddy, and myself, would form Paramount International Coin Corporation in 1965, obtained a large quantity of Liberty seated pieces from the Detroit Federal Reserve Bank.

We had a field day looking through these. It was almost like visiting Ali Baba's cave! Jim Ruddy and I set aside a large table area and marked on sheets of paper spaces for each of the Liberty seated dates: 1840, 1841, 1842, and soon, including branch mint issues. We were even optimistic and put in spaces for 1851, 1852, and 1858; three rarities! The coins ranged in condition from Fine to AU, with a few being less and a few being more. The average grade was Very Fine to Extremely Fine. Most pieces had a brownish-gray toning, the result of many years of bank storage. Presumably the coins had been taken from circulation by banks in the 1870s, following the discontinuance of the Liberty Seated dollar in 1873, but before Morgan dollars were issued in 1878.

1851, 1852, 1858, 1870-S, 1871-CC, and 1873-CC were not represented, but, if memory serves, all other dates were. Particularly populous were issues of the 1840s, with 1846 and 1847 being the most common.

In those days it was uncertain how many more rare dates would be found. Would millions of Liberty Seated dollars be found or was the present discovery the bottom of the barrel? No one knew. For that reason our firm was cautious. We would buy a group of dollars, sell them, and then buy another group from our agents. Jim Kelly reported that he did the same. Some very scarce dates did show up, although I was not among the fortunate discoverers. A number of 1871-CC and 1873-CC dollars came to light through other collectors and dealers.

Although my guess is just a guess and nothing more, I would estimate that perhaps 5,000 to 10,000 worn Liberty Seated dollars came on the market during the great 1963 release. Spread over a wide number of dates, these coins found ready homes with collectors. It is safe to say that most have been dispersed by now.

I heard reports of a few scattered earlier dollars of the late 1790s and early 1800s coming to light, but if this was so I did not see them first hand.

Bags were found of such scarce dates as 1889-CC (I know of at least two which are still intact), 1895-S, 1896-S, 1903-S, and 1904-S. In addition, bags were found of most other dates. So far as I know, 1892-S, a coin which is very common in worn grades up to AU but which is fairly elusive in Uncirculated condition, never was discovered in bag quantities.

1893-S, scarce in all grades, remained elusive. A few scattered Uncirculated coins showed up, but not many. When all was said and done and the dust had settled, the order of things had changed. No longer was the 1903-0 the King of Morgan dollars. In its place was the 1893-S, a coin which had been unaffected by the hoards.

Much to the dismay of observers, including me, no 1895 business strikes turned up. Apparently all 12,000 pieces from the Philadelphia Mint had been melted in 1918 under the terms of the Pittman Act.

Many dealers shared in the bonanza. Larry Goldberg, of the Superior Stamp and Coin Company of Los Angeles, sold many bags. Of the first year of issue of the Morgan dollar, 1878, he sold in recent years 15 bags of the 1878 7/8 tail feathers, over 15 bags of the 1878 8 tail feathers, and approximately 20 bags of the 1878-CC. He related in correspondence to me that "when the Treasury Department was releasing quantities of silver dollars our downtown store was located several blocks away from the Federal Reserve Building where a large number of silver dollars were being held. Individuals working at the Federal Reserve would come in during their lunch hour and sell us large groups of Carson City coins, scarce San Francisco Mint issues, 1899 Philadelphia pieces, and at least five 1893-S coins per day. This went on for about six months. Most of these dollars were in circulated condition." Larry further related the purchase and resale of two bags of 1899 Philadelphia dollars and a bag of 1889-0 issues.

Aubrey Bebee related that he "had an opportunity to purchase numerous bags of silver dollars. Quite frequently we would receive calls from collectors who worked in banks in the East telling us they could supply us with bags of certain scarce dates. I purchased quite a few bags of Carson City Mint silver dollars. One time I was offered two bags of 1879-CC dollars and purchased them at $1,750 per bag. Having a number of this date in stock we resold one bag to our good friend, Norman Shultz, at our cost, plus shipping charges. The only Carson City dollars we were not able to purchase in bags were the 1889-CC and the 1893-CC. A collector in Montana, who was in the furniture business, located a bag of 1893-CC dollars, but we could buy only 500 pieces. Not being able to obtain a supply of this date previously, we agreed to his price of $6 per coin.

"Then there was a collector in San Francisco many years ago who located a bag of 1903-S dollars at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank. He sold us 100 pieces at $10 each. We wanted to buy more, but as he had other customers he allotted only 100 specimens to each of the nine other dealers he offered them to.

"Quite frequently we were offered rolls of scarcer dollars by a collector who worked in one of the casinos in Reno, Nevada. I recall buying five rolls of 1904-S dollars, many of which were prooflike, at $80 per roll. I thought that the price was quite high at the time, so I only took five of the ten rolls he offered us."

John J. Ford, Jr. recalled that during one day in the early 1950s, a decade before the great Treasury release, he and a friend, Ralph J. Lathrop, were detained in their travels by a parade featuring Dwight D. Eisenhower. Faced with a huge traffic jam, Ford and Lathrop parked and went into the nearby Federal Reserve Building to see what they would find by buying a bag of 1,000 silver dollars. They were rewarded with a sackful of rare 1893 Philadelphia pieces, each in perfect condition.