A brief history of a legend

By

Alex I Askaroff

Okay let's get some of the essentials out of the way and then we can talk about the legends surrounding this unique coin.

Mintmarks appear underneath the tail feathers of the bald eagle on the reverse of the coin between the letters D and O in Dollar.

Mintmarks include:

CC (Carson City Mint, Nevada)
D (Denver Mint, Colorado)
O (New Orleans Mint, Louisiana)
S (San Francisco Mint, California)

If there is no mark, blank, then it means the coin was minted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

This coin has the mint O, for New Orleans

Of all of these mints, the dollars from Carson City fetch more because of their low mintage and wild west connection. All proofs for the Morgan series were minted at Philadelphia.

Now let's get back to the beauty. The coin is a masterpiece. It even has a beautiful ring when you flick it into the air and when you have a Morgan Dollar in your hand you know you have a real coin! I wonder if Wild Bill could really shoot a hole through one tossed into the air!

One point that I have no answer to, and would like some help with, is that the coins sides are opposite. Hold the coin between your thumb and finger and turn it, one side is upside down. Why? Please let me know. alexsussex@aol.com

We can easily see why the coin is so collectible when we look at Morgan's inspirational design. George T Morgan seemed to have made the perfect coin. He had instructions on what to put on the coin as you will discover on your journey through its history. But it was the way he did it that was just so brilliant.

Physically it is a large coin containing over 24 grams of silver. Did you know old cowboys would drop a silver dollar into their canteens to keep the water pure? They did not know about the technical properties of the silver but they sure knew it kept the water cleaner on long cattle drives. 

Okay let's get some fact out of the way. The Morgan Silver Dollar was authorized by the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. This act was passed to protect the American Treasury after a massive silver strike 20 years earlier. The mass of silver found was called the Comstock Lode and it was in Nevada. This mass of silver, the largest silver strike in history, had the effect of forcing silver prices down and damaging the economy. I bet them miners sure had a shindig! 

The American Government's solution was perfect. Melt down tons of silver and make them into coins. A nice big heavy coin! That removed much of the silver strike from circulation and kept the silver prices up.

Did you know silver is the best conductor of electricity known, even better than gold!

The Treasury then stuffed the coins away in the Treasury Vaults, out of circulation. 

Amazingly there were still bags of these perfect coins in the Treasury right up until the Beatle's era of the 1960's. They survived in stunning condition and are really sought after.

In 1878 John Tunstall, a Lincoln land owner and friend of John Chisom the cattle baron, was killed by a posse instructed to remove him by fair means or foul. It was the beginning the Lincoln County War where legends like Billy the Kid were made. It was also the year that the Morgan Dollar was first minted.

Now more facts. The Morgan Silver Dollar was minted from 1878 until 1904.Then just once more in 1921.

In 1904 silver bullion became scarce and minting stopped. However in 1921 it was minted for another year, why? It may have been due to the fact that during the First World War in, 1918, the Treasury melted down over 270 million silver dollars for their silver content. Wow! 

When silver prices went up more Morgan Silver Dollars were often dragged out of the dusty Treasury Vaults and melted down again. Then the reverse would happen, silver would be made into coins when the economy changed. In this way the government could protect it assets and control silver prices in one swoop. The Morgan Dollar was possibly the only design they had ready for minting at that time, so more were minted for one year in 1921.

Little did they know we would all start collecting the Morgan Dollars for their beauty and so many never went back into circulation.

Now let's look closely at Morgan's great and inspirational coin. He seemed to have got it perfect. He used the great American motto "E pluribus unum."  This was one of the first national mottos of the United Sated of America and stems from the American Revolution, or the American War of Independence. 

Hey, anyone seen Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeline Stowe? Now that's a film. Although it is about independence it's a bit early for my coin now so we must get back to the story.

The motto basically means "out of the many comes one."  It came from Great Seal first designed by the Great Seal Committee of 1776. John Adams, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, amongst others, proposed the superb motto after several other attempts which were not so inspiring.

Thomas Jefferson

This was approved by the Continental Congress for the Great Seal. The Motto was to signify the coming together of the many colonies and the diverse cultures of America into one great, united, country.

Forged in the heat of war the motto was perfect.

Now add Madame Liberty to the coin and the thirteen stars to represent the 13 original colonies that had fought for independence against the British.

Madame Liberty had represented freedom to many countries throughout history. Her bold features and flowing locks, her brand of liberty for all superbly summed up freedom. 

To choose a woman for the coin was inspired. Woman's ability to give birth not only to children but to new hope and a new nation was the perfect choice.

Madame Liberty and the Statue of Liberty came to represent a new beginning to so many immigrants. What a sight when they first set eyes on the Statue of Liberty when arriving in America.

Somewhere on my website I tell you who built The Statue of Liberty, who it was modelled on and why it ended up in America. You will be surprised! It has a little connection with the sewing machine!

Madame Liberty, a symbol of freedom throughout the world

Now, add the date and you have one side of perfection. No matter how hard Morgan would try he could never get his coin better so he looked to the other side of his coin.

Besides stating its value of one dollar and where it came from, The United States of America, what would finally clinch the perfect coin? The National emblem of the Great Bald Eagle of course. Hey we all knew that! But why the eagle, read on...

In 1782 the bald eagle was adopted onto the National Seal as the emblem of the United States. The majestic bird represented a pure form of freedom, living as it does in the remote and clean mountain tops, fearing nothing, subject to no one.

The seal shows the bird spread- eagle. On his breast a shield with the 13 perpendicular red and white stripes of the colonies, surmounted by a blue field with 13 stars. In his right talon the eagle holds a branch, in his left a bundle of thirteen arrows.

However it was not until 1787 that the American eagle was officially adopted as the national emblem but that was just legalities.

The bird was here to stay, much to the annoyance of Ben Franklin who thought of the bird as having a low moral character! Get away they have never run off with anyone's wife that I know about!

The outstretched wings of the National Emblem, The Bald Eagle, was perfect. The majestic master of the air clutches three not 13 arrows on the coin. Guess it would just look a mess with all 13. The international peace symbol, an olive branch, is also gripped in his powerful talons. 

So, is that why the eagle was used you keep asking? There is more, there is another legend!

The legend goes that the eagle was thought about as the national emblem because of a strange incident at one of the first battles of the Revolution. 

The battle started at daybreak, the gunfire and the noise of the fight woke the eagles high up in their nests on the mountain tops. They flew down to the battle and circled over the heads of the fighting men and shrieked at full voice. "They are calling for our freedom," cried the patriots as the battle raged. Encouraged by the eagles they fought on, out-numbered by the British they won the day.

Well that's the legend. It sounds good to me. Mind you in a battle I would not be looking skyward for too long!

So there we have some reasons why the eagle is on Morgan's great coin.

And one last motto, IN GOD WE TRUST.

The Morgan Dollar Eagle stands defiant as a symbol of freedom.

The first United States coin to bear this national motto, In God we trust, was the 1864 two-cent piece. It first appeared on U.S. currency on the back of Florida National Bank Notes in 1863. There was strong pressure on the treasury to add this statement onto the treasury money and why not, it is once again, the perfect motto. Morgan would have jumped at the idea.

Fancy a final true legend, the reason In God We Trust was thought of?

In God is our Trust appears in The Star-Spangled Banner which, as you all know, is the national anthem of the United States of America. So who really inspired America into using it?

The lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner were written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key.

As a young man Francis witnessed the terrible bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, by British ships in Chesapeake Bay during the War of 1812. He wrote the stirring anthem which is self explanatory when you read it. 

They say just before dawn to show defiance to the British ships the shredded and holed American flag was hoisted even higher. As dawn broke Francis was reduced to tears at the sight of his countries flag valiantly fluttering above the blasted ramparts.

With true inspiration he wrote these famous lyrics which eventually became the American National Anthem.

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

In God We Trust, inspired by In God is our Trust, appears between the outstretched wings of the great bird to finish off one of the most outstanding coins of all time.

Well, that's it. Now you know some of the thought and effort that went into one of the most sought after and collected coins in the world you can appreciate it even more. 

If you have never held a Morgan Silver Dollar in your hands you are missing out on a piece of living history. Feel one, spin one, flick one into the air, listen to the sound it makes, it is brilliant. Go and buy one right now! Feel the weight and size.

And if you do buy one, get a nice worn one that has seen some life, that has been through pockets and bags, saloons and banks. One that Wyatt Earp may have bought a drink with before he went down to the O.K. Corral! Or one that Jesse James may have stolen on one of his daring robberies before his untimely death in 1882, he was 34. 

It is easy to see why the Morgan Silver Dollar has become part of the American legend.

The End

Not quite, now for a couple of silly facts:

E pluribus unum is also the Motto of Benfica football club in Lisbon. 

E pluribus unum was originally a Latin term for a salad of several ingredients or simple meal, from the many-one!

See thought you knew everything, now you do!

Did you enjoy the piece? Do let me know: alexsussex@aol.com

Time for a great true story? Spies & Spitfires