Morgan dollar coin, 1885

The coin

This piece is an 1885 Morgan dollar, struck at Carson City. The obverse shows Liberty’s bust facing left, with the coronet LIBERTY, E PLURIBUS UNUM above, thirteen stars, and the date 1885. The reverse carries Morgan’s eagle with a shield, an olive branch, and arrows, the laurel-and-wheat wreath, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, In God we trust, and ONE DOLLAR. CC is readable under the bow. Both faces are photographed upright, full frame. Fine lines cross the portrait and the fields. They may come from abrasive cleaning; the photographs are not enough to assert that, or a numerical grade, or PL or DMPL, or a VAM. The edge is outside the frame. The example was not weighed or measured. PCGS (7160) and Numista (N# 1492, KM# 110) give, as type figures, .900 silver, 26.73 g, 38.1 mm, and a reeded edge. The piece is raw, with no PCGS, NGC, or other holder, and no GSA case.

Legends

Obverse

E · PLURIBUS · UNUM · LIBERTY on the coronet · thirteen stars · 1885.

Reverse

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA · In God we trust · ONE DOLLAR · CC under the wreath bow.

History

The Bland-Allison Act of 28 February 1878 ordered the purchase of silver and its conversion into legal-tender dollars. Morgan prepared the dies; Carson City used them. In 1885 the Nevada house struck 228,000 dollars with the CC mint mark and stopped coinage in November. The Director of the Mint’s report for fiscal year 1886 states that the 28,000 pieces delivered after 1 July 1885 had been struck earlier and are dated 1885: there is no 1886-CC dollar. The mint did not resume coinage until 1 July 1889. Bowers, in the text PCGS reprints, notes that very few 1885-CC dollars entered circulation in the nineteenth century and that worn examples are scarce. After the Treasury dispersals of 1962–1964, 148,285 pieces were held back for the GSA sales, in 1972–1974 and in the 1980 close. That reserve explains why a low-mintage date is still seen uncirculated. GSA provenance for this example is not recorded. This record describes the photographed object; it does not value the issue.

Scarcity and type

PCGS publishes 228,000 as the business-strike mintage of the 1885-CC (7160). There were no proofs. The deliveries it records are 100,000 in January, 100,000 in February, and 28,000 in August. The same record estimates 174,250 survivors in all grades, 155,750 in MS-60 or better, and 18,150 in MS-65 or better: expert-opinion averages, distinct from the mintage and from a slab census. At the end of the 1962–1964 dispersals, the Treasury held back 148,285 examples for the GSA. Circulated examples are scarce, on that account. None of this fixes the state of this piece or proves that it came from a GSA sale. No price is published.

Certification

No holder and no certification number. This module carries no serial number. The identity of this record is the photographed object: date 1885, CC mint mark, Morgan type. The fine lines on the portrait and the fields remain visible; no details grade is assigned here, and cleaning is not asserted. No VAM, PL, or DMPL is attributed. If it is later slabbed, the cert number will replace this note.

Related pieces

Another piece in the United States collection.

• Morgan dollar · Carson City · 1883
• Morgan dollar · San Francisco · 1884
• Gold dollar · United States Mint · 1856
• 2.50 dollars · United States Mint · 1912