Morgan dollars population

This wasn't a calculated selection process of date and mint Morgans.

The process was rather more simplified by a worker grabbing a bag full of Morgans, and sending it off to the melting pot. The only way they would know what dates and mint Morgans were in the bags was to open them up and dump 1,000 Morgans out and search them.

Remember, there were hundreds of millions of dollars hoarded in Treasury vaults.

 

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I was at a local coin shop and saw a generic MS Morgan with a price tag of $1,500. The dealer told me that was probably from the '80s when there was a huge bubble in the coin market. Considering I can buy the same Morgan for $35-45 today, I think it's fair to conclude the market is not in a bubble at the present time.

 

You can't compare the SBA or Sac coin in the late 20th century to a Morgan in the late 19th century. The environments were completely different. The coin compositions were completely different. Communication was completely different. Transportation was completely different. The reason for minting the coins were completely different. I'll stop there.

Edited for spelling.

 

All of that may be JP, but the common denominator of the dollars of the late 19th century, and SBA, Sacs, and POTUS dollars of the 20th and 21st centuries, not popular among the population, especially the SBAs because of the closeness in size to a quarter, and many people were confusing them to a quarter.

 

I would agree that the Ikes, SBA's, SACs and POTUS dollars were not and are not popular for many reasons.

All I was pointing out in that post BU was you can't compare the Morgan's and that era to the IKE's, etc... There were too many differences in the world at the times. It's comparing apples to oranges.

We all know the Bland-Allison Act forced the minting of between 2-4 million coins PER MONTH! Supply completely outstripped demand. Plus, the U.S. Treasury had to have 1 silver coin on deposit for every Silver Certificate issued. Like I said earlier, the population of the U.S. was quite different and the daily wage was around $1. Those were quite different circumstances than the ones that existed when IKE's, SBA's, Sacs and POTUS dollar coins were minted and circulated.

 

I think it is great that there are so many responses but I was really hoping to hear if someone personally did not buy Morgans because of the population reports. Only one person addressed this specifically.

 

So point me to a source that can verify this fact please.

 

Stated quite frankly in that source regarding Morgan dollars.

History repeated itself with the release of the Ikes, then the SBAs, etc. etc. etc.

 

Thanks BU. I read the book. I would agree that the majority of people on the east coast did not like the coin, but it also states in the book that the coin was more popular in the west.

In general, I agree that dollar coins have not been popular, but when it's stated in general terms that no one liked the dollar coin, I take exception to that because IMO, it's too broad of a brush. Then comparing the circumstances surrounding the late 20th century offerings with the late 19th century offerings is just not comparing apples to apples.

The Federal Reserve Notes were not established until Woodrow Wilson was in office. So before that, there was skepticism of bank notes, especially in the west.

 

As a follow up to my post above, I just opened the book and read in the 5th paragraph in the Introduction the following: And I quote.

" In time many Morgan silver dollars were spent and became worn out, including such areas as Tombstone, where Silver Dollars were loved and paper dollars ignored. Similarly, neat little piles of dollars were seen at gaming tables in Rhyolite, Tincup, Silver Reef, Gillette, Bodie, Tonopah, and other places, some now ghost towns, others forgotten. In mercantile houses, banks, bordellos, and bistros in cities such as Helena, Cheyenne, San Francisco, and Denver, cashiers handled dollars in everyday transactions, never-or scarcely ever- pausing to see if the below the eagle's tail on a particular coin there might be a tiny letter S or O, or the twin CC".

 

Okay two things:

1. The population in the western territories was quite smaller than the eastern U.S. and the Morgans were popular with the cow pokes, for use in saloons and gambling halls. But the eastern U.S. population hated the dollar coins and turned them back into banks every chance they got in exchange for greenbacks. What supports my statement is the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars in Morgans were being hoarded at the Mint's vaults as well as the Treasury vaults. There also was a brief melting of Morgans in the early 1900's but was halted shortly there after, and the Morgan was being reissued in 1921 before ending because that same year the Mint was striking the Peace dollars. Then the treasury audit discovered a large hoard in their vaults in 1964 and started releasing $1000 increment bags at face value, many of which contained a lot, if not all of the current GSA CC Morgans.

2. So long as there are $1 notes printed, the dollar coin will not gain any more popularity. Canada ended printing $1 Canadian notes, and uses only $1 and $2 coinage instead; also known as loonies and twonies. Until the U.S. decides to stop printing our $1 note, the coins will not be accepted by the majority. Your mentioned the skepticism of bank notes especially in the west. You are correct on that; however, the reason for the skepticism is quite frankly the banks themselves, were the ones printing those notes, not the Government, and it was too easy for those notes to be counterfeited, which did happen. I'm sure you've seen some of those old bank notes from the late 1800s, which have the name of the bank printed on the obverse side somewhere.

 

I like Morgans as a collector and I have seen a cartoon as a kid where a Morgan dollar was shown and I loved that coin at first sight

 

And to answer one of the OPs initial questions, no, personally I don't care if pop numbers are higher than for other coins. You can still go for CC Morgans, right?

 

I've often watched folks bid up common date Morgan dollars from the 1880's with high populations. I've seen these high population Morgans reach nearly $50. I would nver go more than $10 over spot for a Morgan that isn't in BU condition.

 

GD, look at your post #7: No one wanted them back then....

All I'm attempting to convey is that the Morgan dollar's acceptance in the marketplace is far different than the Ike, SBA and Sac. I believe the west did indeed like the Morgan and that's all I'm attempting to get across. While you stated "No one", I say not so fast. That's all.

BU,
Agree about the eastern acceptance of the coin, and I believe I stated that myself. The reason hundreds of millions of Morgans were minted was due to the Bland Alison Act. The treasury was forced to mint these coins.

I am in NO WAY trying to convince the anyone that the Ike, SBA, Sac or POTUS dollars are popular. That was never the intent. All I said was you can't compare those dollar coins to the Morgan with any significant conclusions. It is clear in my mind that the dollar bill is much preferred to the dollar coin. I am not debating that point.

The only point I'm debating is that the Morgan was indeed a popular coin in the western U.S. AND that the Bland Alison Act was the reason so many of them were minted. You cannot, in my mind, say that because there were so many Morgans in bank vaults (post office vaults, etc...) indicates that it was a failure. The western half of the U.S. used this coin for currency. The eastern half did not.

 

Maybe that's a bit off-topic, but I would rather be interested if collectors are only looking for hot 50 VAMs/PLs/8TFs/CCs etc. and if they even care about normal die VAMs?

 

I am asking because I got a '21 VAM Morgan in lower MS and another regular die Morgan in BU from the same year. Which one will have a higher value to a Morgan collector in the long term? @OP: Does that relate to what you were asking in the first place?