Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 25469054, member: 101855"]I have wondered about this situation also. Some of it make no sense to me, but here's what I know of the history, in a "Readers' Digest" version. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act required the government to buy 4.5 million ounces of silver every month, which would back issues of paper money. Unfortunately, the paper money could be redeemed in either gold or silver. Since gold was worth a lot more than silver, using the 16 to 1 assumption, the redemptions seriously depleted the United States Government gold supply. At a time when the world's currencies were valued in gold, this was a crisis. In the end the agreement was, the government would make silver dollars until its stock of silver ran out, without more purchases. That caused the silver dollar production to end in 1904. In 1918 the British Government badly needed silver for use in India. The Pittman Act called for the melting of about half the silver dollars the government had on hand. The silver was sold to England. The policy was that more silver dollars were needed to back the currency in circulation. Therefore the 1921 dollars were made. The tools to make the Morgan Dollars had been destroyed circa 1908. The 1921 Morgan Dollars were a rush job, and it showed. George Morgan used an existing Morgan Dollar, a bit like a counterfeiter, to make the dies. My question as always been, why didn't the government buy silver on the open market rather than melting many millions of "obsolete" silver dollars in 1918 only to make new ones in 1921? I've been told that is a silly question. I have this MS-61 Morgan in my collection to mark these events. [ATTACH=full]1630238[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

Create my FREE Account!

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches