Q. David Bowers
Silver Dollars Going, Going
The following was printed in the Chicago Tribune,
March 21, 1964, the day after the story was written:
Silver Fever Depleting Treasury Dollar Supply:
By Philip Warden.
WASHINGTON, March 20-0ne of history's great silver rushes is taking place in Washington across the street from the White House, Treasury officials report. Virginia City and Leadville never saw anything like it.
William T. Howell, deputy treasurer of the United States, said in an interview that a steady stream of "prospectors" yes-terday carried out between $200,000 and $300,000 in silver dollars. Altogether, the Treasury was drained of $600,000 to $700,000 of its silver cartwheels, Howell said.
The prospectors are looking for dollars with extra value as collector items. The prospecting started last winter when a bank teller, emptying a bag from a mint, found a dollar for which collectors were then paying $1,500, Howell said.
Others of the coin came out of the government supply, however, and the collectors' market price for this dollar soon dropped to $30, he said. But the Treasury has been scraping the bottom of its barrel for dollars, and collector's coins con-sequently continue to appear. The Treasury distributes silver dollars in canvas bags containing 1,000 coins. Such a bag of silver weighs 60 pounds.
"We saw old men yesterday who looked as if they did not have the strength to carry one silver dollar, much less 1,000, sling these bags onto their shoulders and trot out to their waiting cars," Howell said. Cars bearing license plates of every eastern seaboard state from Massachusetts to the Carolinas parked illegally in front of the Treasury Building while their drivers waited in line to make their silver purchases. Police tucked parking tickets under their wiper blades, but the drivers did not mind. They slipped the tickets into their pockets and drove away.
Treasury guards say there were never fewer than 300 people standing in line to make dollar purchases yesterday. One buyer rented a room in the Washington Hotel across 15th Street and hired runners to bring $24,000 worth of coins to him at a time. Then, like a kid hunting for his prize in a box of Cracker Jack, this buyer started sorting out his coins. Every "Peace" dollar he found was thrown into a bag to be resold to the Treasury. Every New Orleans and Carson City dollar he set aside for further check of its numismatic value. Along 15th Street they will tell you a man was standing at the door of the Treasury peddling silver dollars for $12 apiece.
The Treasury last minted silver dollars in 1935. On July 1, 1963, it had a supply of 115 million. Howell said this supply now has thinned to a bare 13 million, half as many as it had two months ago. The House Appropriations Committee today formally denied funds requested by the Treasury to resume the minting of dollars.
Howell reported that a bag man for a Las Vegas gambling house came in a few days ago to pick up l.5 to two million of the cartwheels so that there would be no shortage for Las Vegas slot machines.
Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield [Mont.] joined the ranks of western mining states congressmen who for weeks have been demanding that the Mint start making silver dollars again. Mansfield said in a Senate speech that the silver dollar is "a standard currency item." Silver dollars, he said, "are superior to paper money, which wears out in three months. Mansfield also urged that Congress investigate reports that the new Kennedy 50-cent pieces will be sold as souvenirs for considerably more than 50 cents.
Dollar Hoard Opened
Here is what the Minneapolis Tribune said about the situation, in an article dated March 21, 1964:
U.S. Treasury Opens Hoard of Old Coins. By Jack Wilson.
WASHINGTON, D.C.-There was a run on silver dollars here Friday after word got around that the Treasury Depart-ment had opened a hoard of old coins. Some dealers were afraid the bottom might drop out of the market for rare old dollars if it turned out that the Treasury was distributing thou-sands of them for $1 apiece. The excitement began about a week ago when the news seeped out that the Treasury had dipped into a vault full of silver dollars minted in the 1880-1890 era.
No silver dollars have been minted since 1935. At the end of last year the Treasury had about $27 million dollars worth of them, stored in vaults holding $1.5 million or $2.2 million each. As requests came in for the coins, a vault would be opened and all the dollars in it would be handed out before another vault was opened. Up to last week-and purely by chance, Treasury officials said-the only vaults that had been opened contained dollars minted between 1922 and 1935, the so-called Peace dollars. Peace dollars have no value as collec-tors items.(While Treasury "officials" may have been ignorant, Cash Room employees were well versed in silver dollar values.) Then the Treasury got around to opening a vault filled with Morgan dollars. The Morgan dollar got its name from its designer, George T. Morgan, and that design was used from 1878 to 1921, when the Peace dollar was designed.
Some Morgan dollars are worth about just $1, but some are worth much more, if they are in good condition. For in-stance, there are a relatively small number bearing the initials "CC" that stand for Carson City, Nev., where there used to be a U.S. mint. One dealer's catalogue showed a price of $165 for an 1879-CC Morgan dollar, and $500 for an 1889-CC. The price was' quoted for coins in "Uncirculated" condition, meaning just as they came from the mint. It was far less for worn coins. The catalogue quoted a price of $2,000 for an 1893 San Francisco, Calif., Mint dollar, and $2,850 for one minted in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1895. They had to be in "Uncirculated" condition to bring that amount.
An 1878 Philadelphia Mint dollar on which the eagle had eight tail feathers was listed at $85, and one for the same year, with seven tail feathers, at $115. These prices were for "Proof' coins, specially minted for collectors and bearing an unusually high polish. For "Uncirculated" coins of the same minting, the prices were $6 and $3, respectively.
The customers standing in long lines in front of the Treasury disbursing window obviously were thinking of prices like these, but no dealer was sure such prices were still obtainable.
Nevertheless some big dealers were buying dollars by the truckload, and sales of $1,000 were so common that the Treasury opened a special window to handle them. Most of the customers, however, appeared to be buying in small multiples of $10.
What annoyedthe. Treasury clerks, and complicated the speculative picture, was the fact that many buyers were turning in their dollars again after culling out the rare ones, if any.
William T. Howell, deputy treasurer of the United States, estimated that about $5 million worth of silver dollars had been sold during the past week, about half of them to Federal Reserve banks.
There was a better than even chance that there wouldn't be any more silver dollars.
The House appropriations committee yesterday turned down Treasury's appeal for $650,000 to be used by the mints to produce 50 million additional dollars.