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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;calcol, post: 8289238, member: 77639&quot;]Was reading an article about the status of the bald eagle in the most recent Smithsonian magazine.&nbsp; Nice that they’re doing great.&nbsp;&nbsp; Then there was a curious statement that the bald eagle on the national seal “still adorned the 1885 U.S. silver dollar. Today, a rare variant of the coin fetches up to $3,000.”</p><p><br /></p><p>OK.&nbsp; But of course, the bald eagle on the national seal is on 2022 silver dollars.&nbsp;&nbsp; So, where did the 1885 date come from, and what is the rare variant?&nbsp; Branch mint, VAM or what?</p><p><br /></p><p>I started think about a beginning reference for U.S. coins, and of course, the Red Book came to mind.&nbsp; So, I whipped out my 2022 edition and turned the Morgan dollar section.&nbsp; Ah ha!&nbsp; All proofs except 1878-79, 1883O and 1895 are listed on the right side of each page as $3,000 in PF-63.&nbsp; So, the “rare variant” is the proof.&nbsp; The Morgan dollar represents “the U.S. silver dollar” to the author of the article.&nbsp; He opened the Red Book, picked a Morgan more or less in the middle of the listings, and spotted the most expensive price, which was for the proof.</p><p><br /></p><p>PF-63 is not even the most common grade for 1885 Morgan proofs; PF-64 is.&nbsp; A PF-63 is still a gorgeous coin!&nbsp; A PF-69 has sold for just over $100k … a tad more than $3k.&nbsp; A picture of this amazing coin is below.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cal</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1464986[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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