Q. David Bowers
Business Strikes:
Enabling legislation: As earlier, plus Act of February 28, 1878
Designer: George T. Morgan
Weight and composition: 412.5 grains; .900 silver, .100 copper
Melt-down (silver value) in year minted: $0.758
Dies prepared: Obverse: Unknown; Reverse: Unknown.
Business strike mintage: 11,550,000; Delivery figures by month: January: 900,000; February: 1,000,000; March: 1,000,000; April: 1,000,000; May: 1,000,000; June: 1,000,000; July: 600,000; August: 1,050,000; September: 1,000,000; October: 1,000,000; November: 1,000,000; December: 1,000,000.
Estimated quantity melted: Millions, probably including many under the 1918 Pittman Act, and certainly many during the private silver melts of the 1970s.
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 250 to 500 (URS-10)
Approximate population MS-64: 3,000 to 6,000 (URS-13)
Approximate population MS-63: 20,000 to 40,000 (URS-16)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 50,000 to 80,000 (URS-17)
Approximate population G-4 to AU-58: 450,000 to 800,000 (URS-20)
Availability of prooflike coins: Many exist, but nearly all are poorly struck and in lower grades. MS-65 DMPL or finer coins are very rare.
Characteristics of striking: Usually poorly struck with poor lustre.
Known hoards of Mint State coins: Tens of thousands were released by the Treasury 1962-1964.
Commentary
The 1887-O is very common in low Mint State grades, weakly struck. In MS-65 grade, sharply struck, it is rare.
Distribution of Silver Dollars
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1887, told of the distribution of silver dollars at the New Orleans Mint:
On hand June 30, 1886, 3,279,237; coinage of fiscal year 1887 11,210,000; available for distribution 14,489,237; in mint June 30, 1887, 8,163,744; distributed from mint: 6,325,493.
The New Orleans Mint in Fiscal Year 1887
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1887, page 55, told what the New Orleans Mint had been doing recently:
"The operations of the mint at New Orleans during the last fiscal year have been limited to the manufacture of silver dollars. The monthly allotments of coinage at this mint were increased to one million silver dollars in November 1886. A monthly coinage of this number of pieces was maintained throughout the fiscal year except in the short month of February last [February 1887; this does not agree with monthly delivery figures quoted above]. The machinery and furnaces of the mint have been thoroughly overhauled, and, from the appropriation of $15,000 by Congress, the mint building has been thoroughly repaired, under the auspices of the Supervising Architect ....
"The coiner operated upon 17,613,577 standard ounces of silver ingots during the year, the coinage executed consisting of 11,210,000 silver dollars, against 9.3 million in the preceding year. This is the largest coinage ever executed in this mint. The percentage of good coin was 56%, with a wastage of 1,375.97 standard ounces."