I recently purchased an 1899 Morgan Dollar with the “micro” New Orleans mint mark, which is commonly listed as one of the major varieties. As I placed it into the correct location in my Morgan collection it got me thinking about the extreme variations in the mint marks of my Morgan Dollars. For a little history, here are some condensed notes from David Bowers book on Morgans: The Engraving Dept kept a supply of letter punches for use in adding mintmarks. There were different sizes for different diameter coins. It was usually the job of the assistant engraver to add the mintmark. The use of punches was very casual. Sometimes large punches were correctly used, sometimes medium punches were used, and sometimes micro punches were used. Some were short and wide, while others were tall and thin. In 1878, two small Cs were used. After 1879, it was two large Cs. In 1884, the elliptical O was replaced with a round O. The engraver eyeballed the position. The punch was held by hand. This led to wide variations in both position and tilt of the mintmark. In 1895, the S mintmark was first punch horizontally. IN 1882, an O mintmark was placed over the top of an S mintmark. So I offer you some pictures of actual coins from my collection, but only of the mintmark. First, the “normal” ones: The classic no mintmark from Philly: Carson City: New Orleans: San Francisco. Interestingly, all my S mintmarks are a "mess": And I guess, we have to include Denver: Now... some hiccups: 1879 Large CC over small CC (one of only 2 Morgans with a detailed grade): The 82 O/S mentioned above: 1888 S repunched over another S: 1900 O placed over a CC. I'd love a better coin. But you can make out the lower point of the 2nd C: A couple more... oops, have to be in the next post:
Two examples of some micro mintmarks: 1899 O: Normal (with a fun die crack) vs Micro 1903 S Normal vs Micro: Anyone else have any fun ones to add?
Until I just re-read Bowers just now, I didnt realize the 78 was a small CC and all the others are large. Here is a comparison:
I only have a handful of duplicate coins. Two of those are an additional 1880 S. Mainly because you can get some draw dropping gem coins for very reasonable prices. Here are the mint marks for those 3: