Q. David Bowers
Business Strikes:
Enabling legislation: Act of February 28, 1878, plus the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of July 14, 1890
Designer: George T. Morgan
Weight and composition: 412.5 grains; .900 silver, .100 copper
Melt-down (silver value) in year minted: $0.45640
Dies prepared: Obverse: 30; Reverse: 30
Business strike mintage: 5,884,000; Delivery figures by month: January: 650,000; February: 582,000; March: 600,000; April: 184,000; May: 520,000; June: 172,000; July: 100,000; August: 948,000; September: 800,000; October: 450,000; November: 572,000; December: 306,000.
Estimated quantity melted: Many over a long period of years, including worn pieces as part of the private silver melts of the late 1970s.
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 8,000 to 15,000 (URS-15)
Approximate population MS-64: 30,000 to 60,000 (URS-16)
Approximate population MS-63: 60,000 to 100,000 (URS-17)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 250,000 to 500,000 (URS-20)
Approximate population G-4 to AU-58: 600,000 to 1,200,000 (URS-21)
Availability of prooflike coins: Many exist, including one-sided prooflikes. DMPL coins are about twice as scarce as prooflikes.
Characteristics of striking: Usually sharply struck. Known hoards of Mint State coins: Large quantities were released by the Treasury in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Proofs:
Dies prepared: Obverse: 3; Reverse: 2
Proof mintage: 735; Delivery figures by month:
January: none; February: 225; March: 75; April: none; May: none; June: 100; July: none; August: none; September: 75; October: none; November: none; December: 260.
Approximate population Proof-65 or better: 136+/ - (URS-9)
Approximate population Proof-64: 106+/- (URS-8)
Approximate population Proof-63: 75+/- (URS-8)
Approximate population Proof-60 to 62: 150+/- (URS-9)
Commentary
The 1898 Morgan dollar is readily available in various Mint State levels.
Mint Miscellany
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1898, gave the following information:
As of November 1, 1898 Morgan silver dollars had beencoined in the amount of 466,836,587 pieces at the variousmints, of which 398,753,504 coins were held against silvercertificates, leaving a surplus of 4,645,838 in Treasury Depart-ment hands available for circulation. In actual circulation in thechannels of commerce were 63,437,255 pieces.
A shortage was discovered in the accounts at Philadelphia.
A quantity amounting to 733 silver dollars disappeared during the 18908 when they were being stored. Presumably, these disappeared somewhere between 1893 and 1898.
Dollar Distribution
Distribution of silver dollars, per The Annual Report of the Director at the Mint, 1898, page 26: Philadelphia. In mint July 1, 1897,61,943,104; transferred from the Treasury for storage, 286,850; coinage, fiscal year, 1898, 4,158,780; total, 66,388,734; in mint July 1, 1898, 66,269,954; total, 66,269,954; distributed from mint, 118,780.
The Year 1898 in History
The Spanish-American War was ignited by the sinking of the battleship Mainein an explosion in the harbor of Havana, Cuba, on February 15, killing 260 aboard. Although the cause of the explosion was never determined, America had an antiSpain bias and sided with Cubans desiring independence from that country. The New York Journal, owned by William Randolph Hearst, printed a letter stolen from the mail in Havana, from the minister of Spain to the United States, calling President McKinley a spineless politician. Hearst stirred up American anger against Spain, and more than any other single individual was responsible for a conflict which probably could have been settled by negotiations. Hearst urged his readers to "Remember the Maine!" He sent artist Frederic Remington to Cuba to paint war scenes, but Remington sent a cable stating that all was quiet there and there would be no war, to which Hearst riposted, "You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war."
On April 22, the Spanish vessel Buena Ventura was captured by the American gunboat Nashville, becoming the first prize of the conflict. (Several years later, the Nashville tied up at the Chicago docks and was a local attraction, prompting numismatist Virgil M. Brand to underwrite an issue of silver medals depicting the ship, for the Chicago Numismatic Society.) Spain declared war on the 24th, and the United States on the 25th. The hero of the 112-days-long war was Commodore George Dewey, whose flagship, the Olympia, led the victors in the Battle of Manila Bay. This naval encounter began at 5:40 a.m. on May 1st, when Dewey said to the captain of his ship, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." Before long, 10 Spanish ships had been destroyed. Subsequently, Dewey's portrait and/or that of his ship appeared on many consumer products, including cigars, music boxes (the Olym-pia), and slot machines (the Mills Novelty Co. Dewey). Else-where in the war, in Cuba the Battle of San Juan Hill brought much fame to Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders.
Victor Herbert's musical, The Fortune Teller, opened on Broadway. One of the featured melodies was the long-remem-bered Gypsy Love Song. H.G. Wells' book, The War of the Worlds, was published.
The director of the Mint was Robert E. Preston who served from November 1893 through February 1898. From February 1898 through July 1907 the director was George E. Roberts.
Dr. William H. Sheldon, controversial constitutional psychologist and large cent specialist, was born October 30. He gave psychology the classification of human bodies into endomorphs, mesomorphs, and ectomorphs, with parallels in temperament; he gave numismatics Early American Cents and Penny Whimsy, using what later became familiar as the Sheldon rarity scale and numerical grading.