The Treasury Dept and Federal Reserve published monthly inventories that included silver dollars. It was obvious before the large distribution of 1964 that there were millions of coins in government vaults and that the numbers were dwindling during the 1950 and especially early 60s. US silver bar inventories were also sinking in part because Treasury was selling below open market. President Kennedy ended below-market silver sales.
I remember at the time I was a freshman at Northwestern Tommy Ryan a Chicago dealer was the first to get them, from Detroit. He was selling them for $15 and the first customer that bought one ran over to dealer John G. Ross and sold it to him for $1500.00 before he found out about the hoard. I bought a few and sold some at $50, which I later refunded when they dropped to $5.00. I spent my 1963 Spring break going to the Continental Bank buying a bag at a time, taking them to the old Morrison Hotel spreading them on a table in an empty banquet room looking for other 03-O s , as many of the bags were mixed. The Continental Bank had sent an armored car to Washington, and filled it up with dollar bags at face and had them in the cash vault. They mostly stayed there until 1980 when Rarcoa disbursed the over 1000 Bu bags.
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The Treasury Dept and Federal Reserve published monthly inventories that included silver dollars. It was obvious before the large distribution of 1964 that there were millions of coins in government vaults and that the numbers were dwindling during the 1950 and especially early 60s. US silver bar inventories were also sinking in part because Treasury was selling below open market. President Kennedy ended below-market silver sales.
If I remember correctly the 1904 Philly Morgan was also very scarce until ca. 1962 when they started showing up in banks in Flint MI.
I remember my dad buying, for me, 1890,1891,1898,1899,1900,1901,1902, 1903 and 1904 O mint coins for very low prices in 1963. Those were the days.
I remember when that happened, even tho I was not a collector of Morgans.
I picked up a 1962 Red Book this past summer.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Great article, thanks for the link.... Cheers, RickO
I remember at the time I was a freshman at Northwestern Tommy Ryan a Chicago dealer was the first to get them, from Detroit. He was selling them for $15 and the first customer that bought one ran over to dealer John G. Ross and sold it to him for $1500.00 before he found out about the hoard. I bought a few and sold some at $50, which I later refunded when they dropped to $5.00. I spent my 1963 Spring break going to the Continental Bank buying a bag at a time, taking them to the old Morrison Hotel spreading them on a table in an empty banquet room looking for other 03-O s , as many of the bags were mixed. The Continental Bank had sent an armored car to Washington, and filled it up with dollar bags at face and had them in the cash vault. They mostly stayed there until 1980 when Rarcoa disbursed the over 1000 Bu bags.
Great article!
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