Hey, I was wondering why the 1896S Morgans is worth so much more than the 1886S Morgan in higher grades despite the fact that the 1886S has a mintage of only 750,000 and the 1896S has a mintage of 5,000,000. Were a lot of the 1896S Morgans melted or something. Just wondering because I have an 1886S Morgan. - James
Mintage has little to do with how many Morgans survived in a particular date or mintmark. Contrary to popular myth, Morgans Silver dollars did not circulate as widely as most people think today. Most Morgans were stored by the hundreds of millions by the Gov`t, with bags released as demand warranted. A couple hundred million were melted by the Gov`t in 1918, and the 1940`s. There were some date and mintmarks that were finally released by the Gov`t in huge quantities in the 40`s 50`s and early 60`s. That is why so many Morgans survive today in high grade. Other date and mintmarks were melted in huge quantities in the big melts. So for the most part, Mintage figures mean little when it comes to Morgan dollars.
A little history as to WHY the Gov`t minted Morgans by the hundreds of millions. The Bland-Allison Act of 1878 (pushed through Congress by western mining interests) required the Gov`t to buy and coin into silver dollars between $2,000,000 and $4,000,000 worth of silver PER MONTH . Most of these never circulated. They were stored by the Gov`t for the most part, and the Treasury issued Silver Certificates against the silver dollars stored by the gov`t. The Sherman Act of 1890 repealed the Bland-Allison Act, but provided for coining 2,000,000 oz per month, until July 1891, and only as much to cover the redemption of Treasury (Coin Notes) thereafter. Few silver dollars were minted in the early 1890`s, giving us such rarities as the 1893-S. Another Act of Congress provided for the coinage of the remaining silver purchased under the Sherman Act. When that supply ran out in 1904, minting of silver dollars ceased. The Pittman act of 1918 provided for the melting of up to 350,000,000 of the over 400,000,000 silver dollars the US gov`t had in storage. 270,000,000 were acually melted. This was to help the British cover war spending in WW1. The Pittman act also called for the re-minting of the melted silver dollars, which commenced in 1921, Hence the 1921 Morgan, and the Peace dollars.
