190? - O Morgan

I been buying rolls of cull dollars off and on for years. Day off of work and the chores are done so I thought I might just open them up and study them. This one caught my eye.

A 1903-O is a better date Morgan. Sadly, this may have been one. The last digit has taken a hit somewhere along the way. Not that it matters with the damage, but thought I might post it and see if any eyes better than mine can make out the last digit.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

My guess is a 1.

 

I'll guess 1 as well.

 

You can still see the top of the 1. Compare it to the first 1 in the date.

 

Looks like 1901 to me.

 

Well, there are only 4 dates it could be. Definitely not a 2 or a 4. It could be a 1 but the 1 would look identical to the 1 in 19. I can picture that but to me, it just doesn't look as close as the 3. There appears to be a faint shadow of a 3 on the left side of the damaged area. A 3 fits a little closer than a 1 but I'm only looking at a photo.
It looks to me as if the hit came from the left center, not the top right. The history of the 1903-O is fascinating to said the least. In short, they really didn't circulate so this leads me to the conclusion that this can only be a 1901-O.

 

I am not familiar with the history of the 03-O. I do see that it wasn’t a particularly low mintage. I was wondering why that was such a better date Morgan. Perhaps Google can educate me.

 

Minted but not needed in circulation. Most were stored then melted later. For years the 1903-O was the toughest one in the set. Until the Mint released bags of them.

 

1901 is my guess as well. 1903-O is not common at all in circulated condition.

 

My guess is 1903. Nice coin

 

I think it's a 1907 (Just kidding)

The story of the "rare" 1903-O is pretty interesting. You should be able to find something on google about it

 

Dave hit upon what is probably the best case against it being an 03-O and is an interesting story if unfamiliar. It's also a fine example of how scarcity and value can change in a heartbeat.

That said, perhaps this could be used as an educational exercise by trying to identify it using VAMworld. While probably not something for the faint of heart, it may be worth it if something of personal interest to you.

 

I did Google the history of the dollar. Never been to VAMworld. Reckon I should go there. I hear referenced here quite a lot.

 

It's basically a variety website and is really an excellent reference even for those not interested in the variety aspect but wants to understand more about such dollars. I would certainly recommend it.