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: $0.40835
Dies prepared: Obverse: 140; Reverse: 107 Business strike mintage: 8,636,000; Delivery figures
by month: January: 1,500,000; February: 750,000; March: 750,000; April: 500,000; May: 1,000,000; June: 320,000; July: 550,000; August: 1,000,000; September: 1,200,000; October: 500,000; November: 500,000; December: 66,000.
Estimated quantity melted: Millions, probably starting with the 1918 Pittman Act authorization.
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 14,000 to 28,000 (URS-15)
Approximate population MS-64: 100,000 to 200,000 (URS-15)
Approximate population MS-63: 125,000 to 250,000 (URS-19)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 300,000 to 600,000 (URS-20)
Approximate population G-4 to AU-58: 300,000 to 600,000 (URS-20)
Availability of prooflike coins: Relatively common.
A bag or two of prooflikes came on the market in 1965. About 5,000 to 10,000 exist (URS-14). DMPL coins are scarcer.
Characteristics of striking: Usually very poor, but there are rare exceptions.
Known hoards of Mint State coins: Many hundreds of bags were released by the Treasury 1962-1964. These were in addition to bags released earlier.
Proofs:
None
Commentary
The 1902-O is very plentiful in flatly struck, low Uncirculated grades.
Status of the New Orleans Mint
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1902, discussed the New Orleans Mint:
"The increased capacity of the mints at Philadelphia andSan Francisco and the prospective opening of the new mint atDenver have provided and will provide a much greater coinagecapacity than the country has heretofore had. On the other hand,the pressure upon the mints will relax rather than increase. The coinage of 1.5 million silver dollars per month, now required bylaw, will soon come to an end by the exhaustion of the stock of bullion purchased under the Act of July 14, 1890. Thisrequirement now calls for a coinage equal to the entire capacityof the New Orleans Mint.
"When it ceases, that mint will be idle unless work is diminished at Philadelphia and San Francisco to give it employment. When the Denver Mint is opened, the bullion output ofColorado and possibly of other mining districts of the Westnow going to Philadelphia will be cut off from the latter institution, and it does not seem advisable to still further reduce itsoperations in order to supply work for New Orleans. The operations of the San Francisco Mint are wholly confined togold produced or imported on the Pacific coast and themanufacture of the subsidiary coins required in the Pacificcoast states, and it is not practicable to divide its work with themint at New Orleans.
"The latter institution was reopened after the civil war in 1879, and since then has been almost wholly employed upon the coinage of silver. Its receipts of gold are small-last year about $400,000-and alone do not warrant coinage operations. It would be a useless and unjustifiable expense to ship gold bullion from Denver, Philadelphia, or any other of the offices of the service, to New Orleans for coinage, as the Treasury would have no use for the coin there.
"It is opportune here to call attention to the fact that the gold coinage of the country is now entering almost entirely into storage and that the cost of coinage is an unnecessary expense. The Treasury holds now about $500 million of coined gold, which isdoubtless more than will be called for in a generation to come. Practically all of the current coinage is being deposited ii the Treasury for certificates. When gold is required for export, it is wanted in bars, while for domestic circulation the public prefers the Treasury certificates, which, with some modification of the statutes, might as well be issued against bars.
"The balance of silver bullion purchased under the Act of 1890, in the Treasury July 1, 1902, was 33,218,712 fine ounces. The amount ofthis bullion used in last year's coinage operations was 19,344,209 ounces, so that if the same amount is used in the current fiscal year the amount remaining on July 1, 1903, will be only 18,874,903 ounces, which is not enough to allow of a full year's coinage for all the mints in 1903-1904. This bullion is all at Philadelphia, and, inasmuch as that mint can easily meet all requirements, it is not considered advisable to ship any bullion from there to New Orleans after July 1 next, or to plan for coinage operations at the latter place after that date.
"The cost of operating the New Orleans Mint last year was $259,158.98. The estimates for Philadelphia and San Francisco are not increased, but it will be possible for those institutions to do the entire coinage for the year 1903-1904 within the appropriations that are asked for them. On the other hand, if the work to be done is divided between the three mints, it will not be possible to make any considerable reduction in expenditures, as a complete organization of skilled employees must be kept at each establishment.
"If coinage operations are now discontinued at New Orleans, so much of the machinery there as is in good condition and of approved design can be transferred to the new Denver Mint, and the estimates for equipment there correspondingly reduced.
"If the New Orleans institution is abolished, the country will be left with three coinage mints-one on the Pacific coast, which will be the natural depository of the gold product of Alaska and the Pacific coast States and of the imports from Australia and the Orient; one in the interior, convenient to the gold producers of the Rocky Mountain region; and one near the eastern coast, convenient to receive the imports from that direction. This may be accepted as a satisfactory permanent arrangement."
The above proposal to end coinage at New Orleans ignored the large dollar coinages at San Francisco, did not plan for later 0 and S mint subsidiary silver, and did not succeed until 1909.
Distribution of Dollars
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1902, told of the distribution of dollars during the fiscal year: New Orleans:
In mint June 30, 1901, 15,823,500; coinage, fiscal year 1902, 10,770,000; total, 26,593,500; in mint June 30, 1902, 18,033,000; distributed from mint, 8,560,500.