The Morgan dollar was a United States dollar coin minted from 1878 to 1904, and again in 1921. It was the first standard silver dollar minted since the passage of the Coinage Act of 1873, which ended the free coining of silver. The coin is named after its designer, United States Mint Assistant Engraver George T. Morgan. The obverse depicts a profile portrait representing Liberty, while the reverse depicts an eagle with wings outstretched.
About Morgan dollar in brief
The Morgan dollar was a United States dollar coin minted from 1878 to 1904, and again in 1921. It was the first standard silver dollar minted since the passage of the Coinage Act of 1873, which ended the free coining of silver. The coin is named after its designer, United States Mint Assistant Engraver George T. Morgan. The obverse depicts a profile portrait representing Liberty, while the reverse depicts an eagle with wings outstretched. The mint mark, if present, appears on the reverse above the \”o\” in \”Dollar\”. The dollar was authorized by the Bland–Allison Act, which required the Treasury to purchase between two and four million dollars’ worth of silver at market value to be coined into dollars each month. In the early 1960s, a large quantity of uncirculated Morgan dollars in their original bags were discovered in the Treasury vaults, including issues once thought rare. Individuals began purchasing large quantities of the pieces at face value and then removed them from circulation through hoarding, and eventually the Treasury ceased exchanging silver certificates for silver coin. In 2006, Morgan’s reverse design was used on a silver dollar issued to commemorate the old San Francisco Mint building. The design was replaced by the Peace dollar later the same year. The act also provided for mintage of a silver trade dollar, which was intended to compete with Mexican dollars for use in the Orient. Under the act, bullion producers were allowed to bring bullion to the mints in order to be cast into bars or coined into the newly authorized trade dollars for a small fee.
In 1876, Trade dollars initially held legal tender status, but it was revoked in 1876 to prevent bullions producers from making a profit by coining silver into trade dollars when the value of the metal was low. The bill was vetoed by President B. B. Hayes, but the president’s veto was overridden on February 28, 1878, and it came to be known as the Bland Allison Act. This amendment allowed the issuance of Free Silver certificates for the first time in U.S. history; one of the amendments struck that provision allowed for silver issuance of the same ratio of silver to gold as 16 ounces of gold would be 16.76 ounces of silver, meaning that one ounce of 1876 silver would be valued at the same value as 16 ounce of gold. In 1890, the act was repealed by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, but only required further silver dollar production for one year. This act, once again, was repealed in 1893. In 1898, Congress approved a bill that required all remaining bullion purchased under the Sherman Silver Purchasure Act to be coined into silver dollars. When those silver reserves were depleted in 1904, the Mint ceased to strike the Morgan dollar. The Pittman Act, passed in 1918, authorized the melting and recoining of millions of silver dollars, Pursuant to the act.
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This page is based on the article Morgan dollar published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
