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Hello friends and forumites,
This has been an exciting and busy week, and I wanted to chime in on the recently announced 1964 Morgan dollar discovery.
The people involved in this discovery were myself, John Dannreuther, Q. David Bowers, and David Sundman. What we discovered at the Philadelphia Mint were galvanos (or bronzed plaster models; further study will have to reveal their composition), hubs, and master dies for a 1964 Morgan dollar.
To clarify, and to squelch any rumors or speculation: We didn't find working dies, or actual trial-strike coins.
The central image on the front cover of the new 5th-edition Guide Book of Morgan Silver Dollars is of a master die (which has regular "coin" orientation, not mirrored as a working die would be), photographed straight-on from above. That's why it has the appearance of being a coin. This isn't an artist's mockup, a software-manipulated fabrication, a fantasy strike, or a counterfeit coin. It's a real piece of Philadelphia Mint hardware that, under normal circumstances, would have been used to create working dies for coinage.
This was a very exciting discovery! Roger W. Burdette has described in his Guide Book of Peace Dollars how the Morgan design was briefly considered for silver-dollar coinage in the early 1960s. Of course it was the Peace design that eventually was pressed into service.
The revelation of these previously unknown models, hubs, and dies is an amazing real-world example of the vibrancy of numismatics --- our hobby is a living, breathing science. There are discoveries out there still waiting to be made!
-- Dennis
This has been an exciting and busy week, and I wanted to chime in on the recently announced 1964 Morgan dollar discovery.
The people involved in this discovery were myself, John Dannreuther, Q. David Bowers, and David Sundman. What we discovered at the Philadelphia Mint were galvanos (or bronzed plaster models; further study will have to reveal their composition), hubs, and master dies for a 1964 Morgan dollar.
To clarify, and to squelch any rumors or speculation: We didn't find working dies, or actual trial-strike coins.
The central image on the front cover of the new 5th-edition Guide Book of Morgan Silver Dollars is of a master die (which has regular "coin" orientation, not mirrored as a working die would be), photographed straight-on from above. That's why it has the appearance of being a coin. This isn't an artist's mockup, a software-manipulated fabrication, a fantasy strike, or a counterfeit coin. It's a real piece of Philadelphia Mint hardware that, under normal circumstances, would have been used to create working dies for coinage.
This was a very exciting discovery! Roger W. Burdette has described in his Guide Book of Peace Dollars how the Morgan design was briefly considered for silver-dollar coinage in the early 1960s. Of course it was the Peace design that eventually was pressed into service.
The revelation of these previously unknown models, hubs, and dies is an amazing real-world example of the vibrancy of numismatics --- our hobby is a living, breathing science. There are discoveries out there still waiting to be made!
-- Dennis
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I give away money. I collect money.
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