In the 1890s and turn of the century there seems to be quite a few rarer and key dates. Does the Panic of 1893, Guilded/Progressive era play into these key dates?
Yes indeed. William Jennings Bryan (the Cowardly Lion) was all about Free Silver to increase inflation, and help out the farmers to pay off their debts. McKinley and the Republicans were for a Gold Standard, and to maintain silver as a token coinage. The Panic of '93 occurred because there was a cash shortage - lower output of silver dollars because the Bland-Allison Act and Sherman Silver Purchasing Acs were repealed in 1893 by President Cleveland. You see lower issues of Morgans from 1892-1895. In 1896 Silver Dollar production picked back up due to the economy improving after 2+ years of recession.
I love how numismatics questions - lead to history questions - lead to numismatic questions and on and on. I started collecting as a kid and as I got older I developed a passion for history. Can't say for certain, but I wonder how much of the history interest came from my collecting interest. @CoinBlazer In a previous post you asked about focused collecting interests. Maybe you can find your focus in historically interesting/significant coins. When I used to belong to local coin clubs (none in my current area now), I always brought in a coin with a historical story. If the mtg was slow, I would do a 5-10 min presentation on the coin. I always felt that coin clubs should provide some sort of educational component to the meetings. Back to your OP. Go down to the library and check out some books on the panic of 1893 and that period of history. If that bores you, then read about the panic of 1837 and maybe look for a cheap hard times token. The possibilities are endless
The Panic of 1893 was caused by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act not its repeal. The repeal was caused by the panic. The Sherman Act greatly increased the amount of silver the Mint was required to purchase each month to be made into silver dollars. This silver was paid for with a new currency, the Coin Notes of 1890 which were redeemable on demand in either silver or gold and the redeemers choice. Most of these notes were immediately redeemed for gold. Why? Because that amount of gold would purchase MORE silver bullion than was originally sold to the mint. That silver would then be sold to the Mint for more coin notes. It became a vicious circle resulting in more and more gold being drawn out of the government holdings. In 1893 the government gold holding dropped below the legal minimum level and the government was now in danger of having to default on government obligations to other countries. (Legal minimum was $100 Million, by the end of 1893 it had fallen below $60 million.) They HAD to be paid in gold and the US no longer had enough gold to do so. That lead to a run on the dollar. No one wanted to hold dollars if the government might default. Loans were called, prices for foreign goods greatly increased, and the economy crashed. The Sherman Act was repealed to stop that drain on the gold reserves. With the economy in a major recession/depression there was little call for coinage, hence the rarities. What ended the recession was when J P Morgan and his syndicate agreed to supply the gold the government needed to restore the reserves to solvency, $65 million in gold coin in exchange for $62.4 million in 30 year bonds paying 4% interest. (Of course the government had to agree, on that day Feb 4 1895 there were warrants due for $12 million in gold, and the Treasury only had $9 million remaining.)
