Too many Silver Dollars - 30,000,000 stored in a pit under the vault- very disconcerting

1630Boston

Too many Silver Dollars - 30,000,000 stored in a pit under the vault
.

jesbroken

Got a shovel?
Jim

dcarr

1921-D Morgan Dollar mintage: 20,345,000.
1922-D Peace Dollar mintage: 15,063,000.
The letter is dated January 6 1923, so few (if any) 1923-D Peace Dollars would have been minted as of this date.

If 30,000,000 were stored, only about 5,408,000 were released by the time of the letter.

CaptHenway

That closing of the sub-treasuries referenced in the letter is the main reason why so few coins less than a dollar were coined after January of 1921. The Mints were flooded with used but perfectly negotiable coins, so they stopped making new coins and insisted that any bank ordering coins take used ones instead. Once the stockpiles were paid out production resumed on a regional need basis by denomination.

ricko

When I read of such quantities of silver dollars, I picture Scrooge McDuck diving into his pool of coins as depicted in the cartoon. Cheers, RickO

lilolme

The letter mentions the Pittman act. If you collected Morgans and read some of the information on them, then one would know about the large melting of silver dollars. The noted 30,000,000. in Denver is just the start. The numbers from multiple sources, but I went to the HIghfill book, were 270,232,722 melted silver dollars under the Pittman act which allowed up to 350,000,000. Then states that 11,111,168 were for coinage of smaller denominations and the remaining 259,121,554 melted to support overseas (this part of Sec 2 of Pittman act). As noted in the OP letter these coins/dollars were replaced with new silver dollars (and I believe this through 1928). There was some more about the paper money side but....

I found this NGC write up to give some insight into this (and I also don't care to try and rephrase the book information). Also at the bottom is link to Pittman act text.

I will note that Highfill mentions the Thomas amendment to the Agricultural Adjustment Act (1933) which helped to continue the Peace dollar production in 1934, 1935.

NGC article part 1 and 2:
https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/902/

https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/922/

Pittman Act text:
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/pittman-act-5875/fulltext

Tramp

Interesting history and mystery.

ShadyDave

@jesbroken said:
Got a shovel?
Jim

Mr. Redfield can probably lend you the shovel he used to use to throw his silver dollars down the coal chute at his house.

tommyrusty7

Sell them to the public and pay down the deficit!

Cocoinut

As stated above, 270,232.722 silver dollars were melted under the Pittman Act in 1918. The act also stipulated that an equivalent number of new silver dollars would be struck. This process began with the 1921 Morgans and continued with the Peace dollars through 1928. The total of all 1921-1928 dollars equaled the exact number melted in 1918.

BuffaloIronTail

@CaptHenway said:
That closing of the sub-treasuries referenced in the letter is the main reason why so few coins less than a dollar were coined after January of 1921. The Mints were flooded with used but perfectly negotiable coins, so they stopped making new coins and insisted that any bank ordering coins take used ones instead. Once the stockpiles were paid out production resumed on a regional need basis by denomination.

Also, in addition to Tom's comment, there was a short but very severe recession going on, and yes, the splurge of coins from the huge mintages for the war effort were sufficient for what was needed at the time.

Pete

Walkerguy21D

** As stated above, 270,232.722 silver dollars were melted under the Pittman Act in 1918. The act also stipulated that an equivalent number of new silver dollars would be struck.**

I’m sure most of the dollars melted were Morgan’s, but I bet there was a fair number of seated and trade dollars in there, later to be coined into 1921 Morgans and 1922 Peace dollars…..what a shame!!

VTchaser

This hurts my heart

dsessom

Well, now I understand why 1922 and 1923 gem Peace dollars are so inexpensive.

Tramp

Just think of the Morgan, trade and seated dollar DNA running through each of those peace dollars.

lilolme

More melting stuff. From the Highfill book who references it from the VAM book the melting numbers for the specific years (indicated a physical year ending June 30) were:
1918 - 68.75 Million
1919 - 91.37 M
1920 - 10.00 M

After this the numbers dropped off considerably (hundreds or thousands per year) until a new act (52,738,933 melted) to support WWII where it jumps up again.
1943 - 8.08 M
1944 - 44.66 M

After this the numbers drop off but still much higher than previous years. The numbers per year were generally in the 200K to 400K but ranged from about 100K (1946) to 1.7 M (1956 - why was this year so much higher?) per year. The chart ends with 1963 and 1964 at 1.08 M and 1.29 M.

Total melted from the chart from 1883 to 1964 was 333,022,048.

Hopefully no more typos.

CaptHenway

@Tramp said:
Just think of the Morgan, trade and seated dollar DNA running through each of those peace dollars.

Actually, most of the melted silver went to India. The 1921 Morgans and the Peace Dollars were mostly made of newly mined silver.

Joe_360

@ricko said:
When I read of such quantities of silver dollars, I picture Scrooge McDuck diving into his pool of coins as depicted in the cartoon. Cheers, RickO

Same here, I also picture Yukon Cornelius...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFxzohbXLSo

DisneyFan

@ricko said:
When I read of such quantities of silver dollars, I picture Scrooge McDuck diving into his pool of coins as depicted in the cartoon. Cheers, RickO

Did someone mention me?

Namvet69

I guess there were no conex containers back then.

lilolme

@CaptHenway said:

@Tramp said:
Just think of the Morgan, trade and seated dollar DNA running through each of those peace dollars.

Actually, most of the melted silver went to India. The 1921 Morgans and the Peace Dollars were mostly made of newly mined silver.

Yes. As reported by some, part of the act was to support the mining industry. So the Sec 2 indicates buying the silver in part to coin the new silver $. Of the 11,111,168 melted and used for coinage it is not clear to me if this was smaller denominations only or included some new $. I took of screen shot of Sec 2 and 3 of the act for those who like reading difficult to interpret text.