A Nice Silver Morgan from Philly!

Soon after the United States Constitution was ratified one of their first priorities was to establish a mint to produce coinage. Prior to this time people would use coinage from England, Spain, France... anything they could get their hands on. Since the capital of the United States was Philadelphia at the time the mint was established there. The coinage act of 1792 stated that the coins produced should be "an impression emblematic of liberty".

Four different building have been used over the years to produce US coins in Philadelphia. In another post I'll go over the mint's history in more detail because it's interesting. This particular coin from 1886 was produced in the second building of which I've included a picture below. This coin although not perfect is a nice mint state coin with some nice tarnish adding to the character. I love the details of the Morgan dollar and it's shame coins produced today often just aren't produced with such details unless they are commemorative.

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photos are mine

**About this particular coin:

Design: George T. Morgan

Year: 1884

Mint: Philadelphia

Diameter: 38.1 mm

Weight: 26.73 grams

Composition: 90% silver and 10% copper

Edge: Reeded

Population: 19,963,886
**

A picture of the second mint building in Philadelphia
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image from thesprucecrafts.com

Morgan silver dollars are great for collecting and stacking because they are relatively easy to find and in some cases relatively inexpensive. But like any investment you should be careful about what you buy and unless you're good at coin grading it's sometimes better to buy graded coins so you know exactly what you are getting. Have a great day everyone! If you have questions or comments feel free to leave them below.

And my disclaimer: Gold and silver stacking can be a fun hobby but isn't for everyone. You can lose money. I'm not a financial advisor and this isn't financial advice, please always do your own research before spending your hard earned money.

References
USA Coin Book
https://www.usacoinbook.com/coins/3232/dollars/morgan/1886-P/

Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Mint

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28 comments
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It was natural to have the mint in the capital of the nation... four buildings? Why four?
I will wait for the second installment of the story.
Pretty, pretty!!! Why don't they make coins like the Morgan and Peace dollars anymore?

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In my opinion it's been political, honor people and not liberty. The US was founded on the importance of liberty, but now it's worship of historical figures. I think it's wrong but most people alive in the USA now have never known coinage with Liberty, they just don't know what they're missing I guess...

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Very true about the grading of coins, years ago as a kid, my then LCS was grading "high" I bought a few of those "over graded" Morgans....🙄

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That was a raw deal! I stick to stuff graded by PCGS or NGC now with preference for the former. Over grades are hard to find these days, if anything they tend to under grade.

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Grading has become much better now days! On the flip side because of “non standard” grading I also picked up a few very clean Morgan’s that I’m sure were very under graded!😇

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That's always a good feeling! But do you really want to spend money on regrading? Unless it's really nice I usually don't bother.

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That’s my opinion as well, they just stay in my collection, I know what I have. I don’t need to pay to have it regraded😇

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Fine Lady Liberty, the Morgan coin's a beauty :)

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It is a beauty. Nice little back story on the mint as well. Always love the history.

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Thanks, I love history too, tomorrow I'll be doing a more historical piece about the mint to change things up a bit.

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That is awesome! Looking forward to it.

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Collecting is a great way to save a piece of your life for future generations. And this can be transmitted genetically, interest in your time and hobbies.

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It's true, you can inherit predispositions from your parents both good and bad!

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