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: $0.87575
Dies prepared: Obverse: 55; Reverse: 40
Business strike mintage: 5,708,000
Estimated quantity melted: Unknown, but probably many under the 1918 Pittman Act.
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 1,000 to 2,000 (URS-12)
Approximate population MS-64: 15,000 to 25,000 . (URS-15)
Approximate population MS-63: 50,000 to 100,000 (URS-17)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 100,000 to 200,000 (URS-18)
Approximate population G-4 to AU-58: 600,000 to 1,000,000 (URS-21)
Availability of prooflike coins: AU prooflike coins are common, but there is little demand. Mint State PL and DMPL pieces are readily available but are mostly in lower grade levels.
Characteristics of striking: Average sharpness. Known hoards of Mint State coins: Many bags were released by the Treasury Department in 1962-1964.
Approximate population G-4 to AU-58: 600,000 to 1,000,000 (URS-21)
Availability of prooflike coins: AU prooflike coins are common, but there is little demand. Mint State PL and DMPL pieces are readily available but are mostly in lower grade levels.
Characteristics of striking: Average sharpness. Known hoards of Mint State coins: Many bags were released by the Treasury Department in 1962-1964.
Additional Information
1881 Report (New Orleans)
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1881, included this information:
"To enable the Philadelphia Mint to employ as much of its force as possible in the coinage of gold, the monthly allotment of silver coinage for the New Orleans Mint was increased and that for the Philadelphia Mint lessened, and to procure sufficient bullion to execute the required coinage at the New Orleans Mint, the owners of the silver bullion were solicited tobid and send their bullion for delivery at that mint.
"The prices for delivery in lots of less than ten thousand ounces at the New Orleans Mint were also fixed from time to time by the director of the Mint, slightly below the equivalent of the London price, and notices of the rates and changes were given to the smelting and refining works in the western states nearest to the mint, with the hope of inducing them to deliver their silver bullion at New Orleans. Two of these refineries have availed themselves of the advantages of direct shipment, saving the previous expense of double transportation to and from the Atlantic sea-board and benefiting the government as well as themselves."
More on the same facility:
"The work of this mint has been principally confined to the manufacture of standard silver dollars, for which the demand through the South continued heavy during the year and nearly equaled the coinage. The monthly allotment of silver coinage was raised to 500,000, and occasionally to 600,000 standard dollars, and executed with dispatch and little additional expense under the efficient management of the officers of the mint."
The New Orleans Mint had 5,088,132 silver dollars on hand (including two million coins transferred to account of the Treasury Department) and during the year had distributed 6,381,486 pieces.
"Two-Beer" Dollars
Dean Tavenner, in The Comprehensive U.S. Silver Dollar Encyclopedia, stated that silver dollars of 1879-O, 1880-O, 1881-O and 1882-O were released in Montana through the Helena branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. The 1879-O dollars were primarily EF-AU and the 1880-O dollars were also EF-AU. The 1881-O dollars were AU and the 1882-Os were AU. Tavenner further noted:
"For the past many years and in several writings I have referred to these as 'two-beer' dollars; i.e., coins which circulated long enough to buy two beers before returning to the vaults from circulation. Why 'two-beer' dollars? Why did they circulate for such a short period of time? Which dates were involved?
"It seems that most of the bags of these dollars werestored at the New Orleans Mint, probably until the mint closed in 1909, and were sent to the Federal Treasury in Washington. There they sat in the back of the vaults ... and were among the last of the bags to be released in 1962-1964 .... Before the autumn of 1962, almost the only 0 mints of these dates [1879-1881] seen were well-circulated coins, mostly VG or Fine in grade.
"The reason for the recalling of dollars during the periods of 'two-beer' dollars are not clear from any reading or study I have ever done. It may have had to do with the various Reconstruction programs in the South. These changed with eachadministration and the influence of whichever group of car-pet baggers had its claws in the South's various legislatures. Itprobably had to do with a generous shortage of cash in theeconomy of the South. It had, no doubt, to do with some extent to the fact that silver dollars were not a popular item with the general population. At any rate, millions of dollars were placed into circulation shortly after their mintage and within a very brief time, withdrawn and sent to the Mint for storage. This happened primarily in 1881 and 1882, and again in 1887 and 1897."