This is a brief guide to the United States Silver Dollar issued between 1878 and 1921, known as the Morgan dollar. The coinage revision of February 12, 1873 had eliminated the silver dollar from our U.S. coinage, and the GOLD dollar had become the default dollar coin in the United States.

The Bland-Allison Act of February 28, 1878 authorized resumption of coinage of the silver dollar in the United States. The Morgan dollar came into existence, and was the coin used to trade by the wild west and the gold rush. It was not replaced until the Peace dollar of 1921.

The Morgan dollar is named for George T. Morgan, a student of Wyon of the Royal Mint of London. Mr. Morgan designed the new dollar, and his last name Morgan’s beginning initial “M” is found on every silver Morgan dollar.

The “M” is located just in front of the bottom of the frontmost hair tress falling below the base line of the neck, on the FRONT or “head” side of the coin. (The front side of the coin, with the head on it, is also called the OBVERSE side of the coin.)

The “M” appears also on the back side (the REVERSE) of the coin inside the left hand loop of the ribbon bow, at the middle of the garland ribbon that circles across the bottom and around up the sides of the coin.

The silver fineness of the Morgan dollar is .900, which means it is 90% silver and 10% base metal, and its WEIGHT is actually 412 and 1/2 grains.

There are FOUR mint locations where these coins were made, or struck as it is called. The mint marks appear on the REVERSE side of the coins, near the bottom below the eagle, just above and between the words “ONE” and “DOLLAR” at the bottom of the coin. The mint marks are identified by the following:

CC means the coin was struck in Carson City, Nevada

S means the coin was struck in San Francisco, California

O means the coin was struck in New Orleans, Louisiana

No mark at all means the coin was struck in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania

This means Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the “default” mint; no mint mark. The Philadelphia mint struck the greatest number of the Morgan dollars of all four mints during the 1878 to 1921 time period.

The Morgan dollar has become one of the best loved and most collected coins of the United States. There are “mishap” Morgans too, where the date has been overstruck with another one, for example (1880 and 1887), or the lips on the head are double-struck, called the “Hot Lips” New Orleans (also from 1880), and other variations, which are more valuable coins than the standard Morgans and command a higher price.

The fact remains, the Morgan dollar is one of the most popular, highly valued coins of all coins collected today. It comes in many different degrees of beauty and preservation of original detail, and its market price varies widely according to its condition. The Morgan dollar has appreciated in value over the years and will likely keep on appreciating as the prices of silver and rare coins increase. It is a coin greatly prized by collectors of all ages.