Morgan dollars from the Philadelphia Mint

The numismatic legacy of the Panic includes rarities in the 1893 Morgan dollars. The Philadelphia mintage that year was 378,000 pieces, most of which were placed in circulation in 1893. In his Official Red Book of Morgan Silver Dollars, Q. David Bowers reports that “some bags were liberated in the early 1950s…A few bags came out in 1962-64.” Circulated examples are affordable, but the price starts to rise dramatically in Mint State (MS)-63. These dollars are expensive (about $7,500 each) and difficult to find in MS-65.

Morgan dollars from the New Orleans Mint

In 1893 the New Orleans Mint produced 300,000 Morgan dollars, all of which were distributed in January of that year. Bowers notes that from “about 1948 to 1955 several thousand or more coins were paid out from the Treasury Building seemingly in singles or in groups, as no record had been found of a full bag.” Mint-state 1893-O dollars are expensive, and MS-65 specimens are elusive and extremely pricey at $175,000.

The last Morgan dollars from the Carson City Mint

The 677,000 silver dollars struck at the Carson City Mint in 1893 marked the end of an era. A victim of the Panic of 1893, coinage operations at Carson City were suspended on June 1. According to the annual report of the Director of the Mint for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1893, “The mint at Carson City being of limited capacity, …the expenses for coinage were much greater at Carson than at San Francisco.” Circulated Carson City examples are affordable through Very Fine (VF) (around $600) and become expensive in About Uncirculated (AU). Examples in MS-65 are few and far between and generally sell for about $65,000.

The "Queen" of the Morgan dollar series from the San Francisco Mint

Bowers says the 1893 San Francisco issue “is the object of great desire in the Morgan dollar series. No single issue has greater popularity across the board.” The official mintage is 100,000, but, according to Heritage Auction Galleries, "recent research suggests that the real mintage was just 77,000 pieces." Many examples are in VF.

When the Treasury Department released Carson City dollars from storage from 1962 to 1964, no bags or small groups of 1893-S coins were found, but many individual pieces were uncovered in circulated grades. A VF specimen now costs more than $5,000, but that is a bargain compared with the price tag of an MS-65 example. The one in the photos below--graded MS-65 by NGC--sold for $299,000. Bowers warns that “many fake 1893-S dollars exist. Absolutely and positively do not buy any ‘1893-S’ dollar that has not been certified by a leading coin grading service.”