A Morgan dollar has sold for $324,000 at auction, dwarfing the previous $269,500 record price for one of the coins.
It sold last Thursday, September 12 at the Long Beach Expo in California.
The coin is an 1895 $1 Deep Cameo with a condition rating of PR67+.
Morgan Dollars are legendary – and still somewhat mysterious – in US coin collecting circles.
Researcher Roger Burdette’s version of the story is this.
George T Morgan made the engraving that gave the Morgan dollar its name. In 1894 he, as a mint employee, was in possession of a large number of those dollars and 13,000 blanks for the coin. The blanks were at the time worth more as dollar coins than as raw silver discs. So, the director of the US Mint gave the order to stamp the discs into coins. A production run of 12,000 (the missing 1,000 are a mystery) in 1895 was recorded in the cashier’s daily balance on June 28.
George T Morgan is at the front right of this group shot of US Mint engravers. He was born in Birmingham, UK, but is one of the great figures for US coin collectors.
However, this production record is not matched in the annual report of dies sent to Philadelphia (where the coins should have been struck) by the mint’s chief engraver. He reports that no dies were made for circulation dollars that year.
Burdette, and many collectors, believe the first account trumps the second.
Morgan had designed the dollar that bears his name and it was the standard issue silver dollar from 1878 to 1904.
In 1918, the Pittman Act (signed to support US mining businesses and help the war-ravaged British economy to recover) resulted in the melting down of as many as 350 million circulating dollars. These, Burdette believes, included all of the 1895 Philadelphia issue of Morgan dollars.
This leaves just 880 dollars made as proofs at the same mint in that year.
A huge rarity and extremely valuable.
The mystery of the mintage also adds the possibility that other coins may exist, and so buyers are particularly nervous of forgeries of this coin, which can only really be sold with rock solid authentication.
The example sold in Long Beach is a very good one.
Seller Heritage Auctions describe it as “a magnificent Superb Gem representative of this fabulous key date, with razor-sharp definition on all design elements and deeply mirrored fields that create intense cameo contrast with the frosty devices. The mostly brilliant surfaces are virtually pristine, with just a few subtle hints of pale gold toning. Overall eye appeal is terrific.”
This coin is one of 7 of its type, with 1 believed to be in better condition.
It weighs 26.73 grams, of 90% silver and 10% copper.
Heritage Auctions vice president, Todd Imhof, said: “It is possible that as many as 12,000 circulation strike Morgan dollars were produced, but if there are any survivors, they have been kept well out of the public eye.
“This coin is one of just 880 Proofs that were struck, but most of them are well out of reach of the collecting community, too. This is a magnificent addition to any collection.”
This record was the result of more than 30 bidders battling for the sought-after piece. The top end of the numismatics market seems to be in a healthy place, with top-quality and very rare coins selling for record prices.
A US 1933 Double Eagle is the most valuable coin ever sold at auction. That was sold in 2021. An Edward VIII sovereign became the most valuable British coin in the same year when it sold for $2.2 million. In May this year a Petition Crown – a very rare Charles II coin – set a record for British silver coins when it made over $1 million.
