Q. David Bowers
Used in the West
In banking and merchandising channels silver dollars were never popular-in the East, and few commercial transactions involved them. It was customary for eastern banks to keep a small supply on hand for customers who desired them for gifts or novelties.
In the Midwest and West the story was different. Silver dollars were regularly seen in circulation, particularly in the silver mining states, where they were preferred to paper money. Among small coins, bronze one-cent pieces were virtually unknown (this is why Indian cents were not coined west of Philadelphia until 1908; when San Francisco struck pieces for the first time) as were nickel five-cent pieces (no nickels were coined west of Philadelphia until 1912).
Silver Dollars Circulate
The Numismatist, September 1917; reprinted an article from the Christian Science Monitor saying that in the Midwest silver dollars were readily handled out in making change in mercantile establishments, hotels, theatres, railroad ticket offices and in cafes. From time to time, other items in print noted that silver dollars were the favorite coin of the realm in the Rocky Mountain states, and in the Pacific Northwest, among other western locations. The typical Nevadan, Idahoan, or Montanan, it was said, might go weeks without seeing a paper dollar.
The Numismatist, September 1941, included this letter from a reader:
Mr. D. C. Wismer's paper in the July issue, page 519, captioned "Paper Money vs. The Other Kind" is both educational and entertaining, but out on the West Coast there area lot of people who think Mr. Wismer wrong in his statement that "the silver dollar is no longer wanted in trade,"
I wonder if Mr. Wismer ever sold tickets at a football game, Fourth of July show, baseball game, or even theater tickets, and tried to make change in paper dollars? Oh, sure, it 'tan be done, but I'll challenge him to a selling duel, he using currency for change while I stick to the cartwheels; and I'll handle customers two to his one, and I'm not bragging.
In the bank where I am employed we ship in from Federal Reserve each week anywhere from ten to twenty thousand dollars in silver dollars, in addition to other minor coins. There are five banks in this town and they all do likewise.
Too Many Dollars
Despite the popularity of silver dollars in certain areas of the country, the government was faced with tens of millions of these coins accumulating in 1,000-coin bags with alarming rapidity.
When pieces were called for use in circulation, the Treasury Department simply paid out what was convenient. As a result, nearly the entire production of certain mintages went into the bottom of storage piles and remained there for decades, while other mintages reached circulation in quantity. Had anyone been interested in putting together a set of Morgan dollars by date and mintmark varieties in 1890, certain issues would have been unobtainable simply because they had not been released yet.
Year after year, Morgan dollars continued to accumulate in vaults. In 1904, when the bullion supply provided by legislation was exhausted, production of Morgan dollars ceased. The Pittman Act of 1918 eventually provided for the melting of 270,232,722 unsorted Morgan dollars as well as some earlier Liberty Seated coins. These silver dollars were simply taken from Treasury storage, and no accounting was made of the dates and mintmarks involved. In 1921-35, Peace dollars replaced the melted Morgans.
Under the provisions of the World War II Silver Act of December 18, 1942, over 50 million additional dollars went to the melting pot. Peace-type coins, in addition to Morgan issues, were included in the later destruction.
Despite these wholesale meltings, several hundred million silver dollars remained.
Collecting Dollars In 1925
The Numismatist, July 1925, included an article by E.S. Thresher, "Coins That Can Be Found in Circulation," of which excerpts are given below.
On June 1919 I started an experiment to see how long it would take to find every date and mintmark of the coins of type now in circulation, that is, silver dollars since 1878, half dollars, quarter dollars, and dimes since 1892, nickels since 1883, and cents since 1864.
I put every date and mintmark on a card which I earned in my pocket, whenever I found one I checked it off. Not being in a business where cash is handled, I had to depend on such coins as I would get for pocket money, except cents. For these I had access to the collections of about 200 "penny-in the-slot" machines.
Thresher lived in Kansas City. He noted that these were the dates and mintmarks that he had not yet found:
1878-S silver dollar with 8 tail feathers.
1884-CC
1885-CC
1889-S
1892
1893-S
1894
1897
1899
1923-D (Peace)
1925-D
1925-S.
Thresher noted that he had found an 1895 dollar. Perhaps it was a spent Proof. On February 1, 1925 he found in change a 1925 Philadelphia Mint dollar. The Thresher listing is extremely valuable for research today, as it shows which dates of Morgan (and a few Peace) dollars were not in widespread circulation at the time. I wish that more accounts of this type were available, as they would help numismatists figure out the circulation patterns of certain issues.
The 1878-S with 8 tail feathers was on many want lists of the period, although no such pieces were ever coined. The reason is that it was listed in a poorly researched but much used guide of the period, Scott's Catalogue of Gold and Silver Coins, published in 1893.
The 1884-CC had been released, but only in very sparing quantities. Unknown to Thresher, most were in storage in the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. Ditto for the 1885-CC.
The 1889-S dollar was a rarity in 1925, because most of the mintage was in storage at the San Francisco Mint, and, in addition, many may have been melted under the 1918 Pittman Act. Today in the 1990s, the 1889-S is considered to be slightly scarce, but hardly rare, as thousands of Mint State coins exist from Treasury releases of later years.
The 1892, 1894, 1897, and 1899 dollars were among a number of Philadelphia dollar issues that were stored by the Treasury and not released in quantity until later. In addition, many were probably melted under provisions of the 1918 Pittman Act.
When 1899 dollars were released in quantity in the 1950s, their widespread availability led some market observers to suggest that the mintage figure of 330,000 was wrong, and that many more were struck. These commentators did not know, however, that very few were released into circulation near the time of striking, and, thus, the 1899 was and is rare in worn grades.
The 1893-S dollar is a low-mintage variety, but this does not fully explain its rarity. Presumably, tens of thousands of the 100,000 struck were melted under the 1918 Pittman Act. Tens of thousands of others were released into circulation in the two decades after 1893, but Thresher had not found one yet. They were available, however.