Were Morgan Dollars created by a pork project?

[Zoins]

I just read the Wikipedia Morgan Dollar page which says:

The Comstock Lode, the greatest silver strike in history, occurred in Nevada in the late 1850s. The strike put downward pressure on silver prices worldwide. The greatest silver strike in history was followed by the greatest coinage boondoggle in history. In 1878, to protect the interest of the western states, Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act which required the Treasury Department to purchase large amounts of silver, and to strike it as coins. For reasons of economy, the Treasury chose to strike the silver as dollars. The mintage was far more than was needed in circulation. These excess silver dollars quickly began piling up. Some original mint bags of Morgan dollars remained in treasury vaults until the 1960s. This strange past has lead to one of the greatest collectible series in American coins providing collectors with many dates and mint marks readily obtainable in mint state condition along with challenging rarities.

It seems like collectors have a lot of great examples of Morgan dollars to collect because too many were created. I don't know anything about the Bland-Allison Act but can it be considered Congressional pork?

[DC Dawg]

The Bland-Allison Act was a response by western states to the Fourth Mint Act, also called the Crime of 1873, that put the US monetary system on the gold standard and basically demonetized silver. The act introduced by Richard Bland (D-MO) and William Allison (R-IA) would increase the amount of silver in US coinage (16:1) and force the Mint to buy $2-4 million of silver per year.

 

In 1890, the Sherman Silver Act raised the purchase to $4.5 million per year.

 

As a result, the Mint struck a lot of Morgan Dollars, but stored them because they were not needed for circulation. Those dollars were found in both the Treasury building in Washington, DC and in Nevada during the 1960s. They were sold off by the GSA.

 

In the context of the 19th century, this is not pork--it's graft. Protecting business interests was a regular occurance during that period. Up until the reform days (T.R.), it was "accepted" that members of congress were being paid off behind the scenes. Those more blatant had huge campaign war chests and political machines keeping them in congress paid by this money. Sometimes, I wonder how the country survived this... but the graft and corruption of the time made for some great political cartoons!

 

Scott

[McKinley-migration]

All proofs for the Morgan series were minted at Philadelphia but proof 1921-S coins are known to exist .

[Zoins]

In the context of the 19th century, this is not pork--it's graft. Protecting business interests was a regular occurance during that period. Up until the reform days (T.R.), it was "accepted" that members of congress were being paid off behind the scenes. Those more blatant had huge campaign war chests and political machines keeping them in congress paid by this money. Sometimes, I wonder how the country survived this... but the graft and corruption of the time made for some great political cartoons!

Thanks for the great reply Scott. I guess sometimes political graft (or pork) is actually a good thing for coin collectors. You just have to wait 80 years or more

 

I wonder what will happen to the stockpiles of Sacs that never see circulation 100 years from now.

[Amanda]

Interesting thread.

 

I would like to add that the Gold Standard was not formally adopted until 1900.

 

-Amanda

[Conder101]

Eventually they will see circulation. There is a roughly 60 million coin annual demand for small dollars from the Treasury from the larger cities where they are used in the mass transit systems. That was why they had to make the 1999 SBA dollars. The draw down finally managed to eliminated the stockpile but did so before the Sac dollars could be issued so they had to strike more. Currently they probably have ten to twelve years supply on hand. Unfortunately the first years coinage of the president dollars will probably add another 15 to 20 years supply of small dollars to the stockpile unless the dollar note is discontinued.

[CarlWohlforth]

Don't forget the 1918 Pittman act. There is a great article about it in this month's Numismatist by Dave Lange. Anyway that act allowed the melting of hundreds of millions of Morgans. I'll have more details when I finish this and follow up articles.

[Amanda]

There was also the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1890.

 

-Amanda