Silver dollar

The term silver dollar refers to any silver coin issued by the United States with a face value of one dollar. Gold dollars have also been produced by the United States. Silver dollars have never been popular with the citizenry of the United States despite several attempts at improving them recently.

When most people think of silver dollars, however, they think of Morgan dollars.

Morgan Silver Dollars were minted from 1878-1921 with a notable break between 1905-1920. 1921s are the most common date, although in ultra high pristine uncirculated grades, they are somewhat elusive. Morgan dollars are second only to Lincoln Cents in collector popularity. The large size, pretty design and inexpensive nature of most dates makes them highly popular. George T. Morgan designed the coin, thus the attribution as a "Morgan" dollar.

Some people collect Morgan dollars by VAM designation. VAM is short for the names of the two authors of the book. The top 100 VAM varieties are highly collectable. Anyone serious about Morgan dollars should get a copy of this book to make sure they don't have something valuable. It's an expensive book, so I wouldn't bother if you aren't a serious collector. Search Amazon.com for ISBN: 0966016823 if you are interested.

The mint mark is found on the reverse below the wreath, above the 'O' in 'Dollar'.

The king of the Morgan dollars is the proof only 1895 with no mint mark. These sell for $10,000 and up. Most CC mint marked coins are worth a premium. Other rare dates include 1893 O, 1894, 1895 O, 1895 S, and 1903 O coming in over $100 in circulated (very fine) condition. Many coins exceed $100 in uncirculated condition, but the majority do not. A common date in uncirculated can be found for around $12, and I buy them quite often for $5 circulated and $8 uncirculated.

All Morgan dollars in ultra high pristine uncirculated condition command high prices. Finest known pieces often fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you hear of an 1878 Silver dollar selling for $100,000 that doesn't mean your average uncirculated dollar is worth that, it means that this "Finest Known" piece is going for that. This is a cause of concern for many people who think that they have a coin worth many thousands of dollars and dealers keep offering them only a few bucks. These are not unscrupulous dealers, it's just that these coins are very common.

High grade Morgan dollars could be considered "investor" coins. That is because the price is very volatile, and the prices set for slabbed (certified) pieces are set on well established exchanges. Sight seen trading often exceeds these sight unseen prices, but the fact that the sight unseen prices are posted is seen as a boon to investors.

You can see pictures of Morgan dollars as well as other dollar types at: http://www.acoin.com/regular1d.htm

There are quite a few rare dates in the Morgan dollar history. The rarest is the 1895 without mint mark which was released as a proof only. These sell for over $10,000. Most of the early CC dates are worth a premium. Other premium dates include 1892 S, 1894, 1903 O, 1903 S, 1904 S, 1893 S, 1893, 1894 S, and 1902 S. There are other dates that are a little better than common, but most people won't pay much of a premium for these.