Most Valuable Morgan Silver Dollars

Above, a special one-off 1921 Morgan silver dollar. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Ever since I inherited some Morgan silver dollars from the Carson City Mint, they have become my favorite coins to collect. 

Since then, I buy Morgans whenever I spot a good deal, too good to pass up.

MSN has posted an article on the most valuable Morgan silver dollars. Before they get into those, they provide a history of the Morgans.

They start with:

Morgan silver dollars were 90 percent silver, one-dollar coins minted between 1878 and 1904, with a special one-off production in 1921 — but their history goes back a bit further.

The Comstock Lode, a massive silver discovery in 1859, flooded the U.S. market with silver and caused the value of silver coins to drop. As a result, in 1873, the Coinage Act stopped the production of silver coins in the United States. Eventually, the silver supply dropped, and the U.S. government passed the Bland-Allison Act to reinstate a silver coin in 1878 and appointed the task to U.S. Mint Director Henry Linderman.

Linderman held a competition for the design of a new silver dollar, which was won by English engraver, George Morgan. Morgan used his fiancee, schoolteacher Anna Williams, as the model for the head of Liberty on one side of the coin. The reverse shows an American eagle holding a clutch of arrows, with the words “United States One Dollar.” The new coins were called Morgan silver dollars after their designer.

The History of the Production of Morgan Dollars

Before we can talk about the most valuable Morgan silver dollars, we wanted to give you a bit more insight into the production of these coins. They were made in five different U.S. Treasury locations, and each mint had its own special letter designation stamped on the coins. These locations were Carson City (“CC”), New Orleans (“O”), San Francisco (“S”), Denver (“D”) and Philadelphia (no mark).

Although Morgan silver dollars are still legal tender in the U.S., they are worth far more than just $1 to coin collectors. Today, Morgans range considerably in value. Their price depends on several factors, including the number of coins minted in a specific year, the city where they were made and the coin’s current condition, with uncirculated coins being more rare and valuable.

So which ones are worth the most valuable collectibles? These are some of the most valuable Morgan silver dollars, according to USA Coin Book and Coin HelpU.

To see which are the most valuable Morgan silver dollars, go here.