The History of the Morgan Dollar
The Morgan silver dollar has an interesting past and is arguably the most popular coin for collectors. The coins story begins in 1850 when the largest silver strike ever, the Comstock Lode, occurred in Nevada. In an effort to protect the Nevada economy from collapsing as millions of dollars a week were being mined, Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act in 1878 which had the Treasury Department purchasing the silver and minting it as one-dollar coins.
The Morgan silver dollar was designed by George T. Morgan. Morgan, a native of England, made the trip to the US to serve as the "Special Engraver" for the Philadelphia Mint in 1876. Henry P. Linderman, the director of the mint at the time, ordered Chief Engraver William Barber and Morgan to create designs for the new one-dollar coin. He chose Morgan's design primarily because he had not been happy with Barber's designs in the past.
Following Linderman's wishes that a head of Liberty should be used for the coins face, Morgan hired Philadelphia school teacher Anna Willess Williams to pose for the design. The obverse had a somewhat thin eagle depicted on it which led some to give the coin the nickname "buzzard dollar." The design also depicts the eagle with eight tail feathers. Someone advised the mint that a bald eagle has only seven tail feathers and Linderman ordered that this change be made. The coins which had already been struck with the die that depicted eight tail feathers were struck again with the new die. As a result, 1878 Morgan dollars have seven tail feathers, eight tail feathers, and the most rare, seven over eight tail feathers on the coin. The seven-over-eight Morgan dollar is one of the most sought-after coins.
Morgan was later demoted to Assistant Engraver and didn't become Chief Engraver -- the title held by those who ordinarily designed the coins -- until he was in his 70's. The Morgan Dollar was the only American coin he would ever design.
More than half a billion Morgan dollars were minted from 1878 through 1904. The coins were produced at Philadelphia New Orleans, San Francisco, and Carson City. Of those minted, hundreds of millions of Morgan dollars were destroyed by the Pittman Act of 1918 which had over 270 million silver coins melted down for their silver content. Those that survived primarily remained in vaults until the 1960's and 1970's due to the coins lack of popularity. As a result of this there are many Morgan dollars available which have never been circulated and are in great condition today.