1893-S Morgan Dollar

A dollar nobody needed

The Morgan dollar existed because of silver politics. The Bland-Allison Act of 1878 forced the Treasury to buy millions of dollars of silver each month and coin it into dollars. On July 14, 1890, the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, authored by Ohio senator John Sherman, raised the purchases to 4,500,000 troy ounces a month. Supporters hoped the extra money would help farmers and lift silver prices; the act required the Mint to coin 2,000,000 silver dollars a month only until 1891.

There was little practical demand for the coins themselves. Many went straight into bank vaults to back silver certificates, paper notes redeemable in silver coin. In the West, though, silver dollars still moved through daily trade.

In 1893 the San Francisco Mint struck just 100,000 Morgan dollars, the smallest business-strike mintage in the series. A 2026 account says the entire output was delivered in January, with no later monthly deliveries. That same year the Carson City Mint struck 677,000 before ending its coinage for good.

The Panic of 1893

In February 1893 the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, crushed by debt under president Archibald A. McLeod, went into receivership and set off a market panic. The Treasury's gold reserve fell below the psychological line of $100 million. The National Cordage Company failed in May, and a crash on the New York Stock Exchange on May 5 opened a depression. National unemployment rose to nearly 20 percent.

California held up longer than the East, thanks to its gold and its distrust of paper money, but by summer banks there failed too, including the Pacific Bank and the People's Home Savings Bank. President Grover Cleveland, who blamed the inflation created by the silver purchases, called Congress into special session to repeal it. The Sherman Act was repealed on November 1, 1893.

One history ties the small San Francisco total to the end of the purchase mandate; another account says the whole 100,000 had already been delivered in January, before the panic broke. Either way, the coin is often called the panic-year king.

Spent in the West, melted in the war

Unlike most Morgan dates, the 1893-S was not left sitting in Treasury bags. Most entered commerce and worked as money, especially in the West, which is why the typical surviving coin is well worn. When the government released millions of silver dollars from its vaults in the early 1960s, and later sold some 2.8 million Carson City dollars in the 1970s, the 1893-S was not among the hoards that turned other rare dates into common ones.

Many of the rest are thought to have been melted after the Pittman Act of 1918, which allowed the government to melt up to 350 million silver dollars to sell the silver to Britain during World War I. The Treasury did not record which dates were destroyed.

Much of what survives in Mint State may trace to one discovery. In the early 1960s John B. Love of the Record Coin Shop in Cut Bank, Montana, found 1893-S dollars mixed into an original bag of 1894-S dollars, sealed in early January 1894, which contained a scattering of coins from the previous year's dies. An estimated 25 to 30 percent of the known uncirculated 1893-S dollars surfaced this way, and Love believed most Mint State survivors came from that single bank hoard.

How to tell a real one

Because every grade is valuable, the 1893-S is one of the most counterfeited American coins; one major grading service lists it among its top ten. The most common fake starts as a genuine 1893 dollar from Philadelphia, which struck coins with no mintmark, and adds an S to the reverse. Others are struck from dies copied from real Morgan dollars, in the correct alloy, which makes them harder to catch.

Genuine coins share die markers because the entire mintage came from a single obverse die and two reverse dies. On the obverse, a small die line runs through the upper center of the T in LIBERTY. Many also show a pair of tiny raised gouges in the lower left foot of the R in LIBERTY, which collectors call "rabbit ears." These markers support, but do not replace, professional authentication.

In grade, the coin has two kinds of rarity. Circulated examples are scarce, with values that start well above $2,500 for a coin worn almost smooth, according to the grading service's published notes. Mint State coins are truly rare: the expert estimate is 123 at MS60 or better and 18 at MS65 or better. The grading service's founder, David Hall, has written that he believes the true number of MS65 or finer coins is probably six or seven. The 1893-S is also virtually unknown in prooflike condition; the grading service has certified only one as PL.

The great coins and their owners

The finest known is a single PCGS MS67 once owned by Dr. Cornelius Vermeule, a scholar and numismatic author. It brought $414,000 in the Jack Lee Collection sale in September 2001, was sold privately in late 2008 for a sum reported only as "in excess of one million dollars," passed through the Coronet Collection, and on August 29, 2021, realized $2,086,875 at auction, the record for any Morgan dollar.

Several MS65 coins trade among the great collections. The Clapp-Eliasberg coin, owned by J. Colvin Randall and John M. Clapp, went with the Clapp collection to Louis E. Eliasberg Sr. in 1942. It brought $198,000 in the Eliasberg sale in April 1997 and $646,250 in October 2014 from the Bob R. Simpson Collection, and on August 9, 2026, with champagne and peach toning and blue at the rims, it realized $1,181,250. Another MS65, from the Larry H. Miller Collection, brought $600,000 in November 2020 and is now with Dell Loy Hansen. A third, the Ralph and Lois Stone coin, brought $735,000 in May 2018.

The Norweb coin shows how a coin's story can change. It sold for $357,500 in November 1988, toured as a grading-service display piece in 1990 and 1991, and was later graded NGC MS67. Offered in April 2008 with a $1,000,000 reserve that was not met, it was later conserved, its natural toning removed, and it sold for $546,250 in August 2011.

This entry tracks the grade one step below Gem. At a coin auction in New York on November 1-3, 2013, an NGC MS64 drew eight bidders and brought $235,000, the top lot of a sale that totaled more than $11.3 million. Another NGC MS64 sold for $372,000 in March 2023.

The king of the series

Collectors call the 1893-S the king of the Morgan dollar series, and it is one of the hardest holes to fill in a Morgan dollar set. The book 100 Greatest U.S. Coins names it the most valuable business-strike Morgan dollar. The rival most often named beside it is the 1889-CC, which specialists rank second in overall scarcity.

Its fame rests on more than a low number. It ties a single date and mintmark to the end of the Sherman silver purchases and the Panic of 1893, a turning point in the American argument over silver and gold. Even a heavily worn example, with its date and tiny S intact, carries that whole story.

The numbers

Mintage

100,000, all delivered in January 1893

Known survivors

Expert estimate: 9,948 in all grades, 123 MS60 or better, 18 MS65 or better. Q. David Bowers: 6,000 to 12,000. David Hall: probably 6 or 7 at MS65 or better. A trade newspaper: fewer than 100 uncirculated.

Weight

26.73 grams; 0.7734 troy oz of pure silver

Diameter

38.1 mm

Composition

90% silver, 10% copper; reeded edge

Designer

George T. Morgan

Dies

One obverse, two reverse

Finest known

PCGS MS67, Vermeule-Lee

Timeline

1. Feb 28, 1878

   The Bland-Allison Act becomes law, launching the Morgan dollar.

2. Jul 14, 1890

   The Sherman Silver Purchase Act raises the Treasury's silver purchases to 4.5 million ounces a month.

3. Jan 1893

   The San Francisco Mint delivers its entire 1893 Morgan dollar output, 100,000 coins.

4. Feb 1893

   The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad goes into receivership, setting off the Panic of 1893.

5. Nov 1, 1893

   Congress repeals the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.

6. Jan 1894

   A bag of 1894-S dollars is sealed with a scattering of 1893-S coins inside.

7. Apr 1918

   The Pittman Act authorizes melting up to 350 million silver dollars; many 1893-S are thought lost.

8. 1942

   The John H. Clapp collection, including a Gem 1893-S, is sold whole to Louis E. Eliasberg Sr.

9. Nov 1988

   The Norweb coin sells for $357,500.

10. Apr 1997

    The Eliasberg MS65 sells for $198,000.

11. Sep 2001

    The Vermeule MS67 brings $414,000 in the Jack Lee Collection sale.

12. 2008

    The MS67 sells privately for a reported sum in excess of $1 million.

13. Nov 2013

    An NGC MS64 brings $235,000 at auction in New York with eight bidders competing.

14. Oct 2014

    The Eliasberg MS65 brings $646,250.

15. Aug 29, 2021

    The finest-known MS67 realizes $2,086,875, the Morgan dollar record.

16. Mar 2023

    An NGC MS64 sells for $372,000.

17. Aug 9, 2026

    The Clapp-Eliasberg MS65 realizes $1,181,250.

The world in 1893

• Jan 17, 1893

  U.S. Marines land in Hawaii as Queen Liliuokalani's government is overthrown.

• Feb 1, 1893

  Thomas Edison completes the first motion picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey.

• Mar 4, 1893

  Grover Cleveland is sworn in as the 24th president.

• May 1, 1893

  The World's Columbian Exposition opens in Chicago; the first U.S. commemorative stamps and coins are issued for it.

• May 5, 1893

  A crash on the New York Stock Exchange deepens the Panic of 1893.

• Jul 22, 1893

  Katharine Lee Bates writes "America the Beautiful" after the view from Pikes Peak.

• Sep 21, 1893

  The Duryea brothers drive the first gasoline-powered motorcar on American public roads, in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1893-S Morgan Dollar is number 56 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 96 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (37 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• All 100,000 coins were delivered in January 1893, before the year's financial panic took hold.
• Some of the finest survivors were found in a bag of 1894-S dollars in Montana in the early 1960s.
• Every genuine 1893-S came from one obverse die, so a tiny die line in the T of LIBERTY helps unmask fakes.
• Collectors call the small die gouges on the R of LIBERTY "rabbit ears."
• The finest-known coin once belonged to Dr. Cornelius Vermeule, a scholar and numismatic author.
• One Gem was offered with a $1,000,000 reserve in 2008, failed to sell, was conserved, and sold three years later for $546,250.
• The 1893-S is practically unknown with prooflike mirrored fields; only one has been certified that way.