Posted inSeries by Date

1886-1890 Morgan Dollars

January 16, 2013

The Morgan Dollar continued its run with an increasing number of coins produced at the Philadelphia and New Orleans Mints during the period from 1886 to 1890. For each year, Philadelphia would strike around 20 million silver dollars, including the peak production of 21,726,000 in 1889. Meanwhile, New Orleans would strike more than 10 million silver dollars for each of these years.

The high production compared to relatively moderate use of the denomination within circulation was driven by the requirements of the original authorizing legislation. The Treasury Department was required to purchase between two and four million dollars worth of silver each month to be minted into silver dollars. Silver certificates were also issues with the exact amount of silver dollars required to be retained equal to the number of certificates in circulation.

This portion of the series includes one of the two most well known key dates of the series, the 1889-CC. This coin had a mintage of 350,000, but more importantly this issue was absent from the large hoard of Carson City Silver Dollars that were auctioned by the GSA in the 1970’s. Other issues from the same mint actually had lower mintages, but are more available due to their abundant representation within the hoard. The 1889-CC is scarce and valuable at all grade levels.

More Information About the 1886 to 1890 Morgan Dollars:

Last updated on July 28, 2023