Q. David Bowers
Morgan Dollar Coinage Begins
The first working dies for the new silver dollar were finished on the morning of March 11, 1878. Shortly before noon the coiner, Oliver C. Bosbyshell, made preparations to begin actual coinage. It took several hours before all of the usual problems had been ironed out, but at 3:17 in the afternoon the coiner declared that a perfect (business) strike had been achieved, and it was laid aside in an envelope to be presented to the president. (Hayes' specimen survives; it is a VAM-9. Whereabouts of the Sherman and Linderman coins (also presumably VAM-9 business strikes) are unknown.)(Hayes had been bitterly opposed to the new dollar, and one wonders what his reaction was to this action.) The second and third specimens went to Treasury Secretary John Sherman and Mint Director Henry Linderman, respectively.
Once the formalities were out of the way, and the special presentation pieces laid aside, regular coinage commenced at 3:35 P.M. The first delivery of business strikes (those meant for the public) was made on March 13, when the coiner brought 40,000 coins to the superintendent (after 1873 that officer acted as treasurer).
The first actual delivery of Morgan dollars came on March 12 when the coiner completed 100 Proof coins for collectors. The Mint price was $1.25, and the first group of coins quickly went to dealers and collectors. On March 18 another 100 Proofs were delivered and again left the Mint soon afterward. The final delivery of Proof coins, for the opening days, was made on March 26 (200 specimens) but, because of confusion surrounding the dates on which certain dies were first used, the situation will be discussed below.
Because Linderman had wished to get the coin into production as fast as possible, there had been no real chance to make a thorough test of the new dies to see what long-term problems might arise. As a result, it was decided to hold up the dies for San Francisco and Carson City. The delay lasted several weeks, to the annoyance of certain groups, especially mine owners, in these two cities.
Changes to the Design
The director returned to Philadelphia on March 18 to examine the situation and see what alterations had to be made before the dies went out to the other mints. There was a list of changes that Dr. Linderman wanted made, including the most famous of all, from eight tail feathers to seven. Morgan was directed to begin on this and other "imperfections" at once.
Linderman's changes were serious enough that Morgan went back to models prepared for another pattern, which had been preserved for just such an emergency. In addition to other requirements, Morgan was also towork on lowering the eagle's breast and revising its beak, but only minor changes were ordered for the obverse. This meant that new master hubs would have to be prepared for both sides.
It was also at this time that Barber, still smarting over his defeat in the design contest, reported to Linderman and Pollock that there were problems in basining (polishing) the die faces. Normally one grade of zinc lap was used to polish the fields of a die, although different grades might be used for obverse and reverse. The "grades" depended on the amount of curvature present. Barber claimed that three different grades were necessary for just one side, creating problems in the die-finishing rooms. All of this was probably true, though Barber seems to have exaggerated the difficulties.
Varieties of 1878 Dollars
In dealing with the various dies and hubs which were employed in 1878 and later, I use the Van Allen-Mallis (VAM) reference (Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan & Peace Silver Dollars) for the basic terms. In their catalogue, each distinct type of the obverse was given a Roman numeral designation (I, II, etc.) and each reverse a letter of the alphabet (A, B, etc.). The first set of dies is labelled I-A; these were in the coining presses as of March 11, 1878. Individual dies within each general type are given special numbers, but this is beyond the scope of the present essay.
In a technical sense the word type is only used for a general designation, as the Liberty Seated dollar or the Morgan dollar. However, for the purposes of this chapter, we will use type to indicate a new master or working hub by Morgan which has incorporated important or semi-important changes. Variety will be used in the sense of individual dies differing in some minor detail, yet from the same hub.
It is not exactly clear when the second type (II-B) of obverse and reverse dies were put into use, but these were not ready at the same time. It is likely that the first time that the newreverse dies were ready was sometime in the opening days of April 1878. It is believed that the new obverse changes by Morgan were completed before the reverse, perhaps as early as the last week of March. This does not mean that dies were introduced to the coinage in this order, however.
All of the reckoning for just when the new dies were put into use is confused by two matters. In the first place; the available Mint records sometimes are vague on just which dies are being discussed. The creators of the documentation knew in 1878 because the hubs and dies were in front of them, but this is no longer true as we have only the coins to go by in determining what happened.
One can envision a situation in: which, say, a dozen dies arrive in the coining room, and are put on a shelf. Six are used during the day, during which time another dozen arrive and are put on the shelf in front of the six unused dies received earlier, etc. Under such a scenario, the last dies received would be the first next used.
The second problem was one of expediency at the Mint. The Engraving Department had a considerable number of the first obverses (I) yet on hand as well as a like number of the old reverses (A). When the new working hubs (from which working dies are made) were completed by Morgan, it was decided to impress the new dies over the old, on the order of an overdate, but done more carefully. The old dies were first planed down so that the lettering was now missing, or just traces remained, but the vignette (Liberty head, eagle, or wreath) was still visible. Then the new working hub was punched into the old die.
In the Van Allen-Mallis reference, when a different hub is used it is designated as follows: The reimpressed obverses are called II/I (i.e., the undertype is Type I). Reimpressed reverses in this case are labelled B/A. Several different combinations exist, leading to confusion on the correct timing of the different hubs.
Because of the collector interest in the first reverse types (generally called 8 tail feather or 7 tail feather dollars) the collector should recognize the easiest way of telling the hubs apart in case a B/ A reverse is being examined. On type A reverses (8 tail feathers) the A of AMERICA is distant from the eagle's wing, while on type B reverses (7 tail feathers) the letter A touches the wing. On B/ A reverses eight tail feathers will be partially seen under and slightly below the new arrangement of seven tail feathers.