1881-S Morgans. Why so pretty and special that year?
Alltheabove76
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What was going on by the bay that year that made so many spectacular looking coins?
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They did a very nice job finishing there dies and made sure they set the press up good so you get a nice PL Frost with excellent detail.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
Law of large numbers. 12.7 million coins struck, and accordingly there are "outliers". Very nice outliers.
Only because I have a whole roll of BU coins.
They also made efforts to restore a PL finish to dies when polishing them after they'd been used for a while. Believe it or not, there are prooflike coins with horrible detail due to die wear. @RogerB produced some coining reports for 81-S that show some dies being used for over 600,000 coins, which is 5 times what was typical. One thing that plagues 81-S is ejection doubling, especially on the lower obverse. On some coins, the date almost looks ripped off the coin. This makes it hard to attribute, as you could imagine.
82-S is another very attractive date. Many dies were basined to a tighter curvature than normal, giving them "deep dish" luster. PL coins are not as common as for 81-S, however.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
1881-S is the only date/mint where a complete die use table exists for the full year - at least so far discovered. Notice that this table shows pieces struck and not pieces reported as good coins.
Messydesk and the VAMpires have a high resolution copy for their reference. Here's the complete table - not readable at this scale. This likely existed for all mints for various years.
I still find it amazing that these old documents survived for almost two centuries... Cheers, RickO
San Francisco used a different abrasive to polish dies after repair....can't recall the material at present. It was a cheap common household item.
Obverses 105, 114, 154, 161, and reverse dies 143 and 169 all over 500,000 coins each. Someone, somewhere, had to be impressed with that yield.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Many 1881-S Morgans do come very nice, but my favorite in this series is the 1882-S. Quite a few of them have that 'bowl' look, making the obverse look almost 3D. I do see that on a few of the 81-S and 80-S dollars, but nowhere near as much as the 82-S.
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
(Yeah, probably not this, but I just wanted to post "Zud" somewhere today.)
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I've seen spectacular examples from San Francisco, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Carson City, it's the 1921- Denver that I'm not aware of nice examples coming from...
My YouTube Channel
Die preparation was different in 1921 from what it was in other years, and Denver had never before prepped a Morgan die. Still, 21-D Morgans tend to be very sharp, although extremely rare PL. Truly stunning 21 Morgans of any mint are rare, especially 21-S.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Here is the letter mentioning the abrasive SF's Coiner used - Lime (no -- not on your Margarita glass).
PS: If Messydesk wants to post this to VAMworld or distribute to Morgan dollar collectors, it's OK.
"The Mint of the United States at San Francisco
Superintendent’s Office
January 31, 1881
Hon. Horatio C. Burchard
Director of the Mint
Washington, DC
Sir:
I have the honor to state that our Coiner requires for use in his department one can of Lime for polishing dies and two dozen polishing sticks, which I will thank you to cause to be procured and forwarded by the Superintendent of the Philadelphia Mint.
Very respectfully,
Henry L. Dodge,
Superintendent"
[RG104 E-229 Vol 10-17 SF]
They had ALOT of practice that year.
There was an impressive 4 year run from 1879 through 1882 at the San Francicso mint that produced the finest Morgan Dollars in the entire series in terms of quality. Many survived in a high state of preservation.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Is the observed depth of mirror (polish) greater on S-Mint dollars from 1879-1882 than that for other mints?
Is the same true for double eagles or eagles?
Not really. Super deep mirrors are available on other mints, as well. S-mint dollars are available that have both mirrored fields and lustrous (not frosty) devices because of the repolishing that happened.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Then their use of lime rather than other abrasives to resurface damaged/repaired dies, might not have resulted in a discernible difference?
I don't think so. There are some post-clash, repolished die stages of some CC Morgans that have really nice mirrors. It doesn't appear, however, that other mints repolished dies like this simply because they were worn.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution