There have been several occasions on EBay where sellers have listed their Morgan / Peace dollars as S mint mark when in fact they are P. The confusion seems to be the way that NGC marks the labels. As an example they the label on a 1921 P is 1921 S$1 whereas on a 1921 S it is 1921 S S$1. Why do they put the S on the 1921 P ? Seems to just cause confusion. Some folks here may want to watch out for this when looking at these items to be sure what they are really bidding on.
I think it stands for silver dollar, you are right, if you didn't know what you were looking at it could easily be confusing. Do they still do that?
I hope that sellers are just ignorant of this fact, and not using it to sell to unsuspecting buyers who may not notice until too late.
For a seller to intentionally lie about the mintmark is courting trouble in the form of negative feedback. Most likely they just don't know any better.
PCGS labels can be found with both. Some of the P mints have labels that say S$1 and others ( maybe newer ) leave off the S. I think the real confusion with NGC is that the date and S$1 on the labels are much closer together , whereas PCGS are on opposite sides of the label. I don't think sellers ( at least most ) are trying to do anything underhanded , I just think they don't know the difference.
It doesn't really need to be there for 1921 since the only dollar issued was a silver dollar. But for other years the S$1 is necessary as gold dollars, designated G$1 on the slabs, were also issued. Sure, the labeling can be confusing for those unfamiliar with slabs and the way the labels are typed up, but I really can't have any sympathy for someone selling or buying a coin based 100% on the label and not looking at the actual coin.
We'll an S on the label might help this guy out. http://cgi.ebay.com/1883-O-PCGF-MS-63-MORGAN-SILVER-DOLLAR-BEAUTY-COLOR-/130462601848?pt=Coins_US_Individual&hash=item1e602d5278 He listed it right as a silver dollar but then adds that it's a "valuable gold coin"
