Morgan dollar coin, 1891

The coin

This piece is an 1891 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 1891. The reverse carries Morgan’s eagle with a shield, an olive branch, and arrows, the laurel 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. Circulation wear and fine parallel lines cross the portrait and the fields. Pale material remains on the reverse; the photographs record it and do not identify it. Those marks 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 “Spitting Eagle” — VAM-3 and VAM-7 — is a small raised feature under the beak; both varieties share that reverse, so the date position must also be read. These photographs establish neither. The edge is outside the frame. The example was not weighed or measured. PCGS (7206) 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. Authenticity is not confirmed from photographs alone.

Legends

Obverse

E · PLURIBUS · UNUM · LIBERTY on the coronet · thirteen stars · 1891.

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. On 14 July 1890 the Sherman Silver Purchase Act raised that purchase to 4.5 million ounces a month. The Q. David Bowers text that PCGS reprints places the entire 1891-CC coinage on silver bought under that act. Carson City, opened in 1870 for the Comstock region, used George T. Morgan’s dies. PCGS (7206) gives 1,618,000 business strikes. Bowers breaks out the deliveries: 200,000 in January, 150,000 in February, 190,000 in March, 76,000 in April, 86,000 in May, 186,000 in June, 120,000 in July, August, September, October, and November, and 130,000 in December. Hundreds of thousands entered commerce in the nineteenth century. Bags left the Treasury and San Francisco from the 1920s through the 1950s; almost none of this date remained in the 1962–1964 payouts. The GSA inventory cites 5,687 examples, and 19 more in a later mixed lot. Stack’s Bowers notes that the strike varies. This record describes the photographed object; it does not value the issue or assert authenticity.

Scarcity and type

PCGS publishes 1,618,000 as the business-strike mintage of the 1891-CC (7206). The same record estimates 162,000 survivors in all grades, 80,000 in MS-60 or better, and 2,000 in MS-65 or better: expert-opinion averages, distinct from the mintage and from a slab census, and the categories overlap — they are not additive. The GSA inventory cites 5,687 examples of this date. Bowers places hundreds of thousands in nineteenth-century commerce and few pieces in the 1962–1964 payouts; it is not a key date, and worn examples exist. None of this fixes the state of this piece or proves that it came from a GSA sale. No price is published. The Philadelphia 1891, the 1891-O, and the 1891-S are other coinages.

Certification

No holder and no certification number. This module carries no serial number. The identity of this record is the photographed object: date 1891, CC mint mark, Morgan type. The wear and the fine lines remain visible; no details grade is assigned here, and cleaning is not asserted. No VAM, PL, or DMPL is attributed. Authenticity is not confirmed from photographs alone. If it is later slabbed, the cert number will replace this note.

Related pieces

Another piece in the United States collection.

• Morgan dollar · Philadelphia · 1893
• Morgan dollar · San Francisco · 1887
• Morgan dollar · Carson City · 1893
• Morgan dollar · Carson City · 1885