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Great article by member RWB in the new Coin Values about the 1895 Morgan
kranky
Posts: 8,709 ✭✭✭
The man knows how to research! A very well-written article, backed up with tons of information taken from government archives. And what was, to me, a surprise conclusion - he believes there were circulation strikes of the 1895 Morgan, primarily based on Assay Commission records which show they were provided both circulation and proof examples, as well as records that show that both types of dies were prepared.
Great article!
Great article!
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
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Are they the "impared proof" specimens we see today? I though those were prepared with proof dies making them "proof" with a different number of edge reeding than a true business strike.
"Bongo hurtles along the rain soaked highway of life on underinflated bald retread tires."
~Wayne
<< <i>I was going to post about this article tonight, but you beat me to it.
Haha, just the opposite of the other day!
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
Interestingly enough, I was at a coin club meeting last week where one of the members told me that he knew a guy who had a business strike 1895 Morgan that, supposedly, Breen had confirmed. I gather that the owner was saving it to fund his retirement. (Personally, I'll believe it when I see it.)
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Thank you for the kind words. I didn't know when the article was going to appear, so haven't seen it yet.
Re: morgannut2's comment. The coins struck by the Philadelphia Mint (and the other mints) had to be purchased by the Philadelphia Mint Coin Cabinet Curator (Robert McClure) at face value. The Curator had $500 a year to spend on coins for the collection, so there were times when he didn't buy the current year's issues due to lack of funds. The Philadelphia Mint collection was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1923 (see Coin World’s article from a few months back - quite good!) and combined with coins the SI already had. I have seen no 1895 circulation dollars in the SI-NNC, but could have missed something, too. The NNC collection is huge!
Re: DaveG's comment. There are many anecdotes about circulation strike 1895 dollars being shown to individuals or offered for sale, but no one has ever carried through with an independent review and certification of them. No specimen has appeared in a well-documented modern auction, either. The Assay Commission leftovers could have been put in circulation or bought by commission members, but after that guess, anything might have happened.
I'll just add that my conclusion is based on the preponderance of evidence, there being only one original annotation suggesting the leftover blanks were struck as 1894 dollars. The Assay Commission and mint officers would have had to commit a massive fraud, then cover it up, and there is nothing to suggest there was anything to hide. The 1895 dollars were reported as struck, probably tossed in a vault, locked up and then crushed in the rush to fulfill the British silver agreement.
After folks have taken a look at the whole article, let me know if you have questions. There is additional info that is not in the article – mostly repetition of source materials.
That’s enough yakking out of me for now!
What I found very persuasive was the cashier's daily balance sheet that showed that 12,000 silver dollars were received from the coiner on June 28. I really don't think that that was a "phantom" bookkeeping entry!
I found it very interesting that, according to Charles Barber's annual report of dies provided to the coiner at the Philadelphia Mint, only proof dies were available (five obverse and four reverse). In his Silver Dollar Encyclopedia, Bowers says that there are four obverse dies accounted for by existing proof coins, but, I think, only one reverse die. (Clearly, the discovery of an 1895 dollar that used a previously unknown die would be compelling.)
Does anyone know if there's any evidence that indicates where the silver dollars that were melted in the Pittman Act were being stored? Or, where the meltings occurred?
If most, or all, of the meltings occurred in Philadelphia, that would certainly increase the odds that all (or almost all) of the 1895 silver dollars were melted.
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Anyway, my two strongest possibilities about the 12,000 reported business strikes were that either (a) they were dated 1894 or (b) they were dated 1895 and all melted, probably by the Pittman Act, and this gives more reason for me to believe one of those two explanations is likely correct. The only other possibility, as far as I can tell, is that the Mint fudged the records.
The curious thing, if they were dated 1895, is that Mint records show that no business strike dies were used in minting 1895 dollars. That would seem to indicate no business strike dollars were dated 1895...unless the business strikes were produced with Proof dies, maybe?
1) a letter to Mint Superintendent Kretz from Coiner William Morgan asking what should be be done with the almost 13,000 silver dollar blanks; and,
2) a letter to Kretz from Mint Director Preston directing the silver dollar blanks be coined into dollars.
Why would the Coiner ask what to do with blanks (and why would the Superintendent have to ask the Director what to do with the blanks) unless there hadn't been any demand (or intention to strike) silver dollars in Philadelphia in 1895?
If there hadn't been any intention to coin silver dollars in Philadelphia, there wouldn't have been any need for business strike dies, so when the directive was issued to strike the coins, then the Coiner would have used the dies on hand: the proof dies.
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The 1918 Pittman Act (sponsored by Sen. Key Pittman of Nevada) was intended to benefit the war effort by providing silver to England’s empire in India. The metal was then used to back the Indian rupee and counter German propaganda about the British-backed currency being worthless. Approx. 350 million silver dollars were taken from Treasury vaults and melted. The situation was so urgent that in the first shipment, the dollar coins were simply folded into little squares and dumped in metal hoppers for transfer direct to India. No inventory is known of the coins melted. They likely included all of the 12,000 1895 dollars struck for circulation.
The same law required that coins be replaced one-for-one with silver bought from American mines at $1 per troy oz. The act also included the cost of minting the replacement coins and the cost of alloy plus 1.5-cents profit to the USA. The mint carried the 1921 Morgan dollars and Peace dollars on its books as “Pittman dollars” or “Pittman silver” for many years. Raymond T. Baker, mint director in 1921, was a former assistant to Sen. Pittman, and had written the 1918 legislation.
There is a very good summary – with a lot more information than above – in “Renaissance of American Coinage 1916-1921” in Part II on the Peace dollar. The ANA has copies available for loan to members.
According to The Annual Report to the Director of the Mint there were 12,470 minted through June 30 and 90 additional "standard silver dollars" from July to November 1, 1895.
I always thought that there was a restriction to the government buying silver during that time and was limited to producing dollars with silver on-hand or silver taken out of circulation, thus the low production.
I have more checking to do.
Congrats to RWB on what must be a great read.
Joe
<< <i>Good Luck finding them ! >>
Especially if all 12,000 were melted. That would leave some assay pieces as the only possible survivors.
Since we know of no business strikes, I wonder if it's possible that at least one of the business strike assay pieces may have been saved, entered circulation and assumed to be an "impaired proof?"
I hope I get my (dad's) issue of Coin Values soon!
-Amanda
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