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: $0.44763 (Melt-down value of a Morgan silver dollar for years in which new dollars were not coined, 1905 to 1920 inclusive: 1905 $0.47200, 1906 $0.52353, 1907 $0.51164, 1908 $0.41371,1909 $0.40231, 1910 $0.41825, 1911 $0.41709, 1912 $0.47543, 1913 $0.46760, 1914 $0.42780,1915 $0.40135, 1916 $0.53094, 1917 $0.69242, 1918 $0.76142,1919 $0.86692, 1920 $0.78844. Annual average bullion value ofa silver dollar taken from the Report of the Director of the Mint, 1938, p. 88. At one time within the year 1919 silver prices peaked, and there was fear that U.S. silver coins soon would be melted down for their bullion content.)
Dies prepared: Obverse: Unknown; Reverse: Unknown.
Business strike mintage: 2,788,000; Delivery figures by month: January: 2,200,000; February: 66,000; March-May: none; June: 522,000; July-December: none.
Estimated quantity melted: Probably about 2,500,000, with possibly half under the 1918 Pittman Act and the others, including worn coins, as part of later melts.
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 350 to 700 (URS-10)
Approximate population MS-64: 4,000 to 8,000 (URS-l4)
Approximate population MS-63: 15,000 to 30,000 (URS-15)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 60,000 to 120,000 (URS-17)
Approximate population G-4 to AU-58: 200,000 to 400,000 (URS-19)
Availability of prooflike coins: Prooflike coins are very rare, but most have low contrast and are not attractive. DMPL coins are exceedingly rare. Most are in low grades.
Characteristics of striking: Poor to average strikes are the norm, but better strikes exist and are rare.
Known hoards of Mint State coins: Several bags were released by the Treasury in the 1950s and in 1962-1964; a bag of low-quality pieces was distributed from a private holding in 1979.
Proofs:
Dies prepared: Obverse: 2; Reverse: 1.
Proof mintage: 650;(Of this number, 310 were minted after June 30, 1904 and before January 1, 1905 and were entered in Mint records for fiscal year 1905 (July 1, 1904-June 30,1905). No silver dollars were struck bearing the date 1905, nor were any struck in calendar year 1905.) Delivery figures by month:
January: none; February: none; March: 275; April: none; May: none; June: 65; July: none; August: none; September: 10; October: none; November: none; December: 300.
Approximate population Proof-65 or better: 84+/- (URS-8)
Approximate population Proof-64: 124+/- (URS-8)
Approximate population Proof-63: 105+/- (URS-8)
Approximate population Proof-60 to 62: 177+/-(See note concerning Proof dollars in Proof-60 to 62 grade in the study of Proofs in the Collecting Morgan Dollars introductory text.) (URS-9)
Commentary
Proofs have a partially polished portrait, rather than cameo-like or frosty; the same is true of 1902 and 1903 Proof dollars. The business strikes exhausted the bullion purchased under the Act of July 14, 1890.
Mint Report Notes
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1904, noted the following:
"The exhaustion of the stock of silver bullion purchased under the Act of July 14, 1890, and the consequent discon-tinuance of silver dollar coinage, has necessitated a large reduction of the force of the New Orleans Mint, which was chiefly employed upon silver. The number of employees in that institution was 219 in February 1904, but in June had been reduced to 97, and has been still further reduced since."
Coinage figures of Morgan dollars under various acts were given, as of June 30, 1904:
Feb. 28,1878 (Bland-Allison Act) $378,166,793; from July 14, 1890, to repeal of the purchasing clause of the Sherman Act, Oct. 31, 1893, $36,087,285; from Nov. 1, 1893, to June 12,1898 $42,139,872; Coined under the War-Revenue Bill approved June 12, 1898, $108,799,878; total under Act of July 14,1890, $187,027,035; Mar. 3,1891 (recoinage of trade dol-lars) $5,078,472; Total $570,272,300.
At the end of fiscal year that ended June 30, 1904, 570,272,300 silver dollars had been coined since 1878. Of these, 461,138,698 were being held by the Treasury against silver certificates, 35,343,055 were being held by the Treasury in excess of the silver certificate requirements, and 73,790,547 were in circulation.
Distribution of Dollars
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1904, told of the distribution of dollars: Philadelphia: In the mint June 30, 1903, $102,413,954; transferred from subtreasuries to mints for storage, 2,100,000; coinage, fiscal year 1904, 2,986,650; total, 107,500,604; transferred from mint to subtreasuries, 80,000; in mint June 30, 1904, 107,115,954; total, 107,195,954; distributed from mint during the year, 304,650.
The Year 1904 in History
The presidential election of the year pitted incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt against Democratic candidateAlton B. Parker. The result was a runaway for the man in of-fice. On January 4, 1904 the Supreme Court ruled that citizens of Puerto Rico could come to the United States mainland and were not aliens, but neither were they United States citizens. On February 7-8, 1904, 2,600 buildings were destroyed in downtown Baltimore, Maryland in the largest urban fire since the Chicago conflagration of 1871. Losses mounted to an estimated $80 million. The rare coin collection of the T. Harrison Garrett estate was on loan exhibit at Princeton University at the time, but some medals and other items kept in Baltimore were reduced to molten blobs by the heat. On June 16, about 1,300 people, mostly German immigrants, were killed in a fire aboard the steamship General Slocum. in New York harbor.
Lincoln Steffens' book, The Shame of the Cities, was pub-lished, and consisted of a collection of articles focusing on corruption arising from actions between businessmen and politicians at taxpayers' expense. Jack London's fiction adven-ture The Sea Wolf was published. Ida M. Tarbell's book The History of the Standard Oil Company told of profits made by the Rockefeller family at the expense of American citizens, and helped arouse passions against monopolies, trusts, and big business in general. Readers learned that John D. Rockefeller had a personal income of $45 million per year and that his firms controlled 90% of the oil business in America. In terms of effecting business reform, this volume became one of the most pivotal in history. On March 14, 1904, the Supreme Court ordered that the Northern Securities Company, a railroad holding company, be dissolved,.
On October 27, 1904 the first section of the New York City subway system was opened, consisting of a conduit from Brooklyn Bridge extending north to 145th Street and Broad-way. Opening a year late to celebrate the 1803-1903 centennial, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was held in St. Louis and attracted visitors from all over the world, and was arguably the most successful such event since the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Among the exhibits on view was the diesel engine (designed by Rudolf Diesel) and the Ferris Wheel, the latter having been an attraction earlier at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The Inside Inn, with 2,257 rooms, was a stunning success at the fair and netted a $300,000 profit to its owner, Ellsworth M. Statler, who would later build a chain of hotels with its flagship facility in Buffalo, New York.
The first Vanderbilt Cup Race was held on Long Island October 8,1904, drawing a crowd of 25,000 automobile fans who saw George Heath drive 10 laps of a 28.4 mile course in 5 hours, 26 minutes, 45 seconds in a French Panhard automobile with a 90-horsepower engine. The American Tobacco Company was formed on October 19,1904 by a merger of two other firms. On December 10 the Bethlehem Steel Corporation was established under the laws of the State of New Jersey.
The Ladies' Home Journal published an expose on the U.S. patent medicine business, a feature which helped lead to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. Pure food was a popular cause, and advocates were prominent in parades, fairs, and other public gatherings. In absence of effective regulations, wild claims were made for foodstuffs, and many deceptions were practiced, including a type of "butter" that, upon analysis, proved to consist of lard, bleach, and food coloring.
Women could not vote in 1904, were rarely seen in business circles, and were frowned upon if they engaged in "men's" activities such as smoking. On September 28, 1904 a woman who was smoking a cigarette while riding in an open automobile in New York City was arrested. W.A. Clark, who earned millions of dollars in copper mining in Montana, moved into his 130-room mansion at Fifth Avenue and 77th Street in New York City. The residence set a new standard for opulence.
In 1904, the Japanese Navy attacked Port Arthur in Southern Manchuria and trapped a Russian squadron, launching the largest and most mechanized war to this point in history. Canadian Prime Minister Sir Winfred Laurier proclaimed, "The nineteenth century was a century of the United States. The twentieth century belongs to Canada."