Q. David Bowers
To the contrary, dollars became popular overnight. After all, if one could spend $25 and get a "$1,500" 1903-O, this was like finding gold in the streets. Dozens of dealers made silver dollars their specialty. Whereas in 1953, if there were a few hundred collectors in the United States who aspired to build a top-grade collection of Morgan dollars, now in 1963 there were 10,000, then 100,000 such people. The demand for dollars multiplied thousands-fold.
Soon, prices of 90% of the different Morgan dollar variet-ies were higher than they were before the Treasury releases! Morgan dollars were hot! In fact, they were the most popular series in the market. Peace dollars lagged in interest, probably because Peace dollars can look quite ugly unless they are in really high Mint State levels, whereas an MS-60 to MS-63 Morgan dollar can look much more attractive.
Empire Coin Company never had any quantity of Uncirculated 1859-O or 1860-O Liberty Seated dollars during the original releases, although we bought a few on the after market, probably from Harry J. Forman, who was the "dealers' dealer" in those days, although a new coterie of silver dollar specialists had sprung up in the West and Midwest.
In the 1950s and early 1960s all of the Nevada casinos used silver dollars. I recall that by the early 1960s, most dollars seen in piles on roulette tables were of the 1921 Morgan issue, a variety that had virtually no numismatic demand. In the 1970s, the casinos used Eisenhower dollars. I don't know if they ever became involved with Susan B. Anthony's in the 1979-1981 period.
As time went on, the 1962-1964 Treasury release became just a fond memory. By late March 1964, the hoard had been depleted, and business was limited to trading in the aftermarket. The coin business changed. Activity since then bears no relation to what it was in the good old, and some-what naive, days of the 1950s and early 1960s.
Dean H. Albert Remembers
The following is from a letter from Dean H. Albert, of Montana, who answered a call for infor-mation printed in a popular numismatic publication:(Letter to the author, February 14, 1992)
In the early 60's I was an officer in the First National Bank of Ekalaka, Montana, a small community in eastern Montana. We (another bank officer and my father who was president) participated in the great coin release by beginning dollar collections. Among the bags we searched we came upon seven coins dated 1859-O and 1860-O. My friend kept three and we gave one to my dad, and I still have three which are in my safe deposit box which I did not access prior to writing this, but my record shows that I graded one 1859-O as AU, another as Uncirculated and the 1860-O as BU. These gradings were assigned nearly 30 years ago and I suspect may be generous or slightly overgraded by natural bias.
These came in a bag of mostly circulated common date coins from the Helena branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. We were unfamiliar enough at that time that we had to look in the "Red Book" to know what we had. This information may help in determining what the distribution may have been.
Rick Wilcox Remembers Rick Wilcox, a Texas numismatist, shared his recollections in a letter to the author: (February 19, 1992.)
The 1950s
Reading about your work on a new silver dollar book has released a lot of my fondest memories of the 1950s and 1960s. Collecting silver dollars! I decided to put some of these memories in writing and pass them on to you.
As a youngster, L started searching through rolls and bags of cents to fill my cent album during the end of 1952. By 1955, I advanced to collecting silver dollars by dates and mintmarks from circulation. Most of the dollars foundfrom the early rolls were needed for my set. Due to this fact, I had to borrow money from my mother so that I could keep all of these needed dollars.
I would keep a list of needed silver dollars and a list of dollars needing to be improved. These silver dollars, dated as far back as 1878, were plentiful in the Detroit area where I grew up. There were many trips with my parents as a teenager and during their trips I would always "hit" the banks in search of silver dollars. Banks were so glad to get rid of them but hated to take them in. It was a common practice as a teenager to continually ask for silver dollars both at banks and stores. I made it known to everyone I knew that I collected silver dollars.
On vacation in Los Angeles during the holiday season of 1956-1957. I spotted a silver dollar in the till of a Cunningham drug store. I asked the cashier if I could have it. She didn't hesitate to exchange it for my paper dollar. I was excited as it was a hard one to find, a nice condition 1895-S!
Another time my uncle from Montana while visiting us gave me a new CC dollar, which was needed for my set. The date has been forgotten. All CC mint dollars were very hard to locate! The 1921 dated Morgan dollars were, by far, the most common silver dollar found from rolls and bags of dollars.
On a trip in Northern Michigan, at a small resort town of Caseville, a store owner brought out a metal box of 500 silver dollars for me to look through! I was in heaven! As I remem-ber, there weren't any dollars in this box that were needed for my set. But, it was fun looking through them!
As the years rolled by, the number of empty holes in my dollar albums was getting fewer. Not only that, at least one third of my dollars appeared to be in Mint State. There were times when brand new dollars would appear in a bank bag. The effect of all this as I went on to college was that I enjoyed carrying new looking dollars in my pocket, and spending hun-dreds of these coins was a pleasure for me. There have been very few days since my high school days, that I didn't at least have one silver dollar in my pocket! In fact, I started carrying an Uncirculated 1886 dollar in 1959 and I'm still carrying this dollar in its own individual pants pocket!
The town where I attended college had a savings institution that had a bag of mint condition 1923 dollars. This place was on my walking route to downtown. A number of times I would get four or five of these dollars just to carry in my pocket. I enjoyed handling silver dollars in mint condition (both Morgan and Peace dollars). The sound they produced when banged together, or flipping them gave me some pleasure. I never got tired of observing and studying these Morgan and Peace dollar designs. Unlike the current minted coins back then and today, I thought these dollar designs were beautiful. Works of art. I just loved them. It was the only coin from circulation that was attractive to look at. Most people would consider me being a little crazy. Perhaps you may understand this feeling I have toward these special silver dollar coins.