The Morgan dollar was minted as the silver dollar coin in the US between 1878- 1921 and even though during it issuance form the treasury remained just another dollar for most of the American people, it was after the Morgan pattern was replaced by the Peace design on the silver dollar coins and decades later when the Morgan dollars stashed away resurfaced that they were seen and searched for with passion and excitement. The Morgan dollars was perhaps one of the very few dollar coins that were met with unimportance and insignificance while in use but once its minting was halted, the coins appeared to be of much more value and were met with a lot more importance.
Amongst the family of the Morgan dollars, the 1985 Morgan dollar I widely known as the ‘King’ of them because of the rarity and the value that it carries, both which are much higher than other dollar coins within the Morgan family. PF- 68 samplings of this Morgan dollar coin have been sold through auctions at values higher than $120, 000.
According to records in the US Mint, there were around 12, 000 of the 1985 Morgan dollar coins that were being circulated after having been struck for 1985. However, only around 80 of these coins have resurfaced while the others are unaccounted for. Scholars in their opinion on where the missing coins have gone remain divided. Theories range from coins not having been minted in the first place to being melted down later to being lost in a shipwreck at sea.
The Morgan dollar was created with the passing of the Bland- Allison bill in the Congress and even though the coin itself depicts Lady Liberty, it is called the Morgan dollar behind its British designer, George T. Morgan. The coin was unpopular because of the politics behind the bill (interests of silver miners instead of public demand highlighted) and was also known as the ‘Buzzard’ dollar because of the scrawny appearance of the eagle on the reverse of the coin.
More than half a billion Morgan dollars were issued during the minting time due to the Bland- Allison Act that required the Treasury to buy $2- 4 million worth of silver to be coined each month.
When it first began to be used, the Morgan was quite unpopular with the eagle being scrutinized, the coin being called a cartwheel and the buzzard dollar. Thus, there was a large amount of coins that sat in the Treasury. There also followed melting of the coins as well as numerous that remained unaccounted for.
The Morgan gained popularity during the 1960s when the Treasury began giving out Morgan dollars dating up to 80 years back for silver certificates. This increased the popularity due to collector’s value of an old coin as well as for certificate redemption purposes. This then followed the Treasury auctioning most of the remaining 2.9 million Morgan coins (most of them minted in Carson City) and by 1980 the public was extremely interested and the Morgan dollars became a collectible series.
The 1895 Morgan coin soon came to be known as the Holy Grail. It has no specimens known to exist and no business strike example of the 1895 coin has ever been discovered. If one is, it is bound to be one of the most spectacular finds in numismatics in America.