Why is 1895 Morgan Dollar an unique coin?

[A.Phillips]

I am familiar with 1895 O and S Morgan Dollar because it is on NGC census list, but why is 1895 P is not on the list? I know that 1895 is out there, it's even sold on Heritage Auction and other auction websites for more than $30k. I can understand why it's worth a lot of money, but what I mean is why didn't they put 1895 Morgan on NGC census list, 1895 as a circulated coin, or whatever compared to 1895 O and 1895 S?

 

PS: please excuse my grammar; English is my 2nd language. Hope you still can understand what I am trying to ask. Thanks!

[coinman_23885]

While there are rumored to be circulation strike 1895 Philadelphia minted Morgan Dollars, none have ever surfaced. As of the present, only proof examples have surfaced. I'm guessing that NGC is segregating them from the normal circulation strikes for this reason.

 

Edited to add: The coin is not unique; there is more than one known proof for that date.

[MarkFeld]

You must be looking under the business strike/circulation strike portion of the census report. There are no known examples of those from 1895. It is speculated that they were all melted.

 

But, there are a number of a proof examples and they sell for strong money. You will find the 1895 listed among the Proof dates in the census report.

[RWB]

12,000 1895 dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint in June of that year. Ten were sent to the Annual Assay Commission (which met in February 1896). Two of these were destroyed during assay, one was described as a "proof," leaving seven uncirculated pieces. Normal procedure was to put into circulation any leftover coins from the commission's work. However, members of the commission could exchange their own coins or currency for souvenirs from the commission. We do not know if any dollars were exchanged by members.

 

The bulk were presumed melted during the Pittman Silver work.

[dimefreak]

Yea I believe a number of these circulated and thus they just slap a PR45 or PR35 ( whatever) grade on them. Interesting coin.

[RWB]

A non-proof 1895 dollar has never been identified. Also, proofs used a lightly different collar than the production presses. Proof coin dies have been identified. (See the VAMworld lists.)

[RWB]

PS: The 20-year old theory that the 12,000 dollars struck in 1895 were dated "1894" turned out to be a misunderstanding of incomplete information. This is a rather common occurrence in US coin collecting where research always takes a back seat to $$$$.

[coinman1794]

I am familiar with 1895 O and S Morgan Dollar because it is on NGC census list, but why is 1895 P is not on the list? I know that 1895 is out there, it's even sold on Heritage Auction and other auction websites for more than $30k. I can understand why it's worth a lot of money, but what I mean is why didn't they put 1895 Morgan on NGC census list, 1895 as a circulated coin, or whatever compared to 1895 O and 1895 S?

 

PS: please excuse my grammar; English is my 2nd language. Hope you still can understand what I am trying to ask. Thanks!

 

The simple answer is that 1895, as a business strike, is not believed to exist.

 

The complicated answer is that the Proof 1895 is collected, by a great many, as part of the business strike set, and its value is disproportionate to other Proof and buiness strike dollars because of the extra demand for this date. This phenomenon is not logical or rational.

 

[johnny9434]

12,000 1895 dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint in June of that year. Ten were sent to the Annual Assay Commission (which met in February 1896). Two of these were destroyed during assay, one was described as a "proof," leaving seven uncirculated pieces. Normal procedure was to put into circulation any leftover coins from the commission's work. However, members of the commission could exchange their own coins or currency for souvenirs form the commission's work. We do not know if any dollars were exchanged by members.

 

The bulk were presumed melted during the Pittman Silver work.

good information to know, thanks

[PerryHall]

I don't think anyone pointed this out yet but in the coin hobby the word "unique" is reserved for coins where there is only one specimen known. This is certainly not the case for the 1895 Morgan dollar.

[MarkFeld]

12,000 1895 dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint in June of that year. Ten were sent to the Annual Assay Commission (which met in February 1896). Two of these were destroyed during assay, one was described as a "proof," leaving seven uncirculated pieces. Normal procedure was to put into circulation any leftover coins from the commission's work. However, members of the commission could exchange their own coins or currency for souvenirs form the commission's work. We do not know if any dollars were exchanged by members.

 

The bulk were presumed melted during the Pittman Silver work.

 

Thanks Roger. I find it interesting, not to mention, odd, that one of the coins was described as a "Proof" but (presumably), not the others.

[RWB]

Proof coins were occasionally included in the pieces reserved for Annual Assay. In the records I've examined, they are mentioned when there was a coin collector on the Commission. Non-collectors might have noticed, but it was not "special enough" to mention. At least one clipped planchet dime was also found one year.

 

Here is an excerpt showing the “proof” annotation. I think that Commission member Andrew Stevenson from Columbus, OH was a coin collector. The titles read: Date of Delivery, No. of Delivery, Denominations, Pieces, Deviation from Standard Weight in Grains, Heavy/Light.

 

 

[source: Burdette, Annual Assay Commission of the United States Mint 1800-1943. This is a boxed set of four DVDs including images of the original minute books of the Commission. They contain much valuable corroborative information including the dates coins were delivered to the Superintendents of each mint. The set is $75 post paid.]

 

[A.Phillips]

12,000 1895 dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint in June of that year. Ten were sent to the Annual Assay Commission (which met in February 1896). Two of these were destroyed during assay, one was described as a "proof," leaving seven uncirculated pieces. Normal procedure was to put into circulation any leftover coins from the commission's work. However, members of the commission could exchange their own coins or currency for souvenirs from the commission. We do not know if any dollars were exchanged by members.

 

The bulk were presumed melted during the Pittman Silver work.

 

Interesting.. It's good to know. Thank you everyone for all those information, I apologize for saying that 1895 is an "unique" coin; I should have say special or uncommon coin.

[RWB]

That's OK. English is my 2nd language, too. It takes a lot of practice to master. On day I'll master it!

[World Colonial]

The 1895 proof dollar is not scarce at all. As one other post stated, it is only as expensive as it is because many collectors include it because there are no business strikes. Since a proof is not part of a business trike set or really a substitute for a business strike, the pricing makes no sense at all but its not going to change because it has been collected that way for a long time.

 

It may be scarcer than some of the other dates, but when I have checked, it seems to sell about as often. On Heritage, about 10 times a year or so which gives anyone who has the money plenty of opportunity to buy it. In any event, it is not a difficult coin to buy at all.