Q. David Bowers
The Mint, as soon as the reimpressed (mule) dies were used up, began to put regular obverses (II) and reverses (B) in the coining presses. Within a few weeks, sharp-eyed citizens had begun to write the Treasury and Mint, inquiring if one of the two types issued so far was a counterfeit. A fair number of people had noticed that some eagles had seven tail feathers and others eight. Finally, newspapers were asked to publish articles saying that a minor change in the dies had been made, and the coins with seven tail feathers were not counterfeits. In the current numismatic nomenclature these two reverses are generally abbreviated as 7 TF and 8 TF.
With working dies made from the second set of hubs operating well in the coining presses, Linderman ordered that dies be sent to San Francisco and Carson City. These were mailed on April 8 and received about 10 days later. Carson City made its first delivery of silver dollars on the 20th, but San Francisco managed to beat its rival by two days.
Shortly after the new hubs (II-B) were completed by Morgan, Linderman paid another of his surprise visits to Philadelphia. The discussion as usual turned to the new dollars. It seemed that the director still was not satisfied with the overall design and wanted additional changes in the master hubs made as soon as it was possible to do so. This time, however, Dr. Linderman thought that this second revision could wait until the current stock of dies was expended, which was expected to be some weeks away;
Morgan told Linderman that the new hubs (obverse III and reverse C) would be undertaken shortly but pointed out that Barber had again been interfering in Morgan's attempt to lengthen die life of the ones currently in use (II-B). It had gotten so bad that the chief engraver had categorically forbidden S. W. Straub, foreman of the die-hardening room, to do any work for Morgan without his (Barber's) personal written approval. Linderman, after this latest bizarre move on Barber's part, gave him fresh orders about minding his own business.
In the meantime, and over the next several months, coiners at Carson and San Francisco made a number of complaints about the quality of the dollar dies sent them. Barber replied to their letters with an answer dipped in acid. He indicated that the westerners were incapable of hardening their dies and perhaps they should all be done at Philadelphia and then sent West. He did send later, however, detailed instructions for hardening and basining (polishing) the new dies.
Concerning the Dies
Despite the director telling Morgan that there was no special hurry about the third set of hubs (IIIC), they were completed rather quickly, probably around the middle of May but were not used for some weeks because of the backlog of II-B dies. When finally placed in use, these were referred to in official documents as dies from the 'June 1878 hubs." Dies from the III-C hubs were placed in use at Philadelphia, probably in June 1878, but none was sent to the other mints until die orders for 1879 were filled in late 1878.
The different hubs used to make the various die sets was to cause occasional confusion at the other mints. In September 1880 Carson City Coiner Levi Dague wrote Director Horatio Burchard, who had become director after Linderman's death in January 1879, that coins then being struck had problems with the reverse. In particular, the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was "not true in relief' while the lettering looked washed-out and shallow. Dague was told to stop using the old reverse dies of hub Band switch to the regulation dies from the C hub. Carson City had been basining the B dies using instructions meant for the C reverses, thus producing the strange results.
Mint officials were very interested in the number of coins that could be made from a given pair of working dies. We do not have figures for the different hub combinations (I-A, II-B, etc.) but the total number of dies used in 1878 is known: 123 obverses and 129 reverses (including those used for Proofs), an average of 83,409 coins per die pair. Although trade dollar dies in 1876-1877 had averaged about 100,000 coins, the officials thought that the 1878 Morgan die record was a good one, considering all changes that had been made.
With most of the problems worked out, die life increased dramatically for the Morgan dollar over the next several years: 1879-138,000, 1880-150,000, and 1884-230,000. In the 1890s this figure, with improvements in die-hardening techniques and better steel, was to pass 400,000 on occasion. These figures are only for Philadelphia; the number of dies sent to San Francisco, Carson City, and New Orleans is known for most years but not how many were actually used.
It is sometimes said that the major problem with the first dies used for the Morgan dollar (March 1878) was that parts of the die were too deep to bring up the design properly, but available records do not discuss this point except in passing. Linderman was far more interested in perfecting the artwork. It is true, however, that the Liberty head and eagle's breast were lowered for better strikes.
New Orleans Mint Reopens
New Orleans opened in 1879 specifically to coin dollars, asthe pressure was too great on the other three mints. Director Linderman had worked for the reopening of this mint for some years. The great silver dollar coinage gave him the excuse that was needed to persuade the Treasury that it was necessary. When putting everything in order for the new dollar coinage, workmen found canceled dies from when the Confederate government controlled the Mint in 1861.
In the 1870s it was general practice in banks and other financial institutions to stack coins in piles of 20for easy counting. The changing of hubs, however, gave different results for the height of 20 coins. The Mint Bureau received quite a few letters pointing out the problem and asking that it be corrected. The piles of 20 actually varied as much as one whole coin using specimens from dies of different hubs. It was for this reason that hubs III and C were essentially unchanged from 1879 to 1900.