1895 Morgan Dollar (Proof) — 'King of Morgans'

A silver dollar born of politics

The Morgan dollar exists because of a fight over silver. The Coinage Act of 1873 ended the standard silver dollar, and as Western mines drove the price of silver down, miners, farmers and others demanded free coinage of silver. Representative Richard P. Bland of Missouri and Senator William B. Allison of Iowa produced the compromise that became the Bland-Allison Act, passed over President Hayes's veto on February 28, 1878. It required the Treasury to buy two to four million dollars' worth of silver every month and coin it into dollars.

The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of July 14, 1890, raised the Treasury's purchases to 4.5 million ounces a month but required dollar coinage only until 1891, and dollar output fell sharply from 1892. After the Panic of 1893, President Grover Cleveland called Congress into special session, and the Sherman Act was repealed on November 1, 1893. That is the backdrop for 1895, a year when Philadelphia had little reason to strike silver dollars at all.

Morgan and his model

George T. Morgan was a young English engraver recommended in 1876 by the Deputy Master of the Royal Mint in London, who called him a man with a considerable name but few openings at home. Morgan arrived in Philadelphia on October 9, 1876, to work under Chief Engraver William Barber, and enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to prepare a new Liberty head.

He wanted an American woman rather than a Greek goddess. His friend, the painter Thomas Eakins, suggested Anna Willess Williams of Philadelphia. She sat for him five times, and Morgan declared her profile the most perfect he had seen. The first acceptable dollar from his dies was struck at 3:17 p.m. on March 11, 1878, and went to President Hayes.

The missing 12,000

The Philadelphia Mint cashier's daily balance records 12,000 business-strike dollars on June 28, 1895. Yet the chief engraver's annual report of dies sent to Philadelphia lists no dies made for circulation dollars that year, and no circulation-strike 1895 Philadelphia dollar has ever been confirmed.

Researcher Roger Burdette found government documents indicating that 12,000 dollars were in fact struck from 1895-dated dies. One account of his work says they came from about 13,000 leftover blanks that were worth more as dollars than as raw silver. Six were sent to the Assay Commission; Burdette confirmed only two of those were destroyed, and nobody knows what became of the other four. The rest are thought to have stayed in storage and been melted under the Pittman Act of 1918, which melted 270,232,722 silver dollars, most of them sold to Britain.

Some 1895 proofs did reach circulation, and a few traveled widely. Coins once thought to be business strikes have proved, on close study of the dies, to be circulated proofs. The possibility that a real business strike might exist also makes buyers wary of fakes, and any 1895 dollar needs firm authentication.

One coin's climb

The coin in this entry was first sold graded PCGS Proof 67 Deep Cameo, bringing $199,750 at auction in April 2017. It was later upgraded to PR67+ Deep Cameo and approved by CAC, and in June 2020 it sold for $269,500 in an online auction, a record for the issue.

On September 12, 2024, offered from the JCS Collection at auction in Long Beach, California, it drew more than 30 bids and sold for $324,000, a new record. The cataloger praised its razor-sharp detail and deep mirrors. PCGS has graded only two 1895 proofs at PR67+ Deep Cameo, and only one finer; the other PR67+ Deep Cameo CAC coin was offered online in October 2025.

Other 1895 proofs have surfaced from long hiding. One that last traded in 1960 for $500 stayed in a single family for almost 60 years before PCGS graded it PR67+ Cameo and it was offered with an expectation of more than $150,000.

How to know an 1895 proof

An 1895 Morgan dollar is 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper, weighs 412.5 grains (26.73 grams) and measures 38.1 millimeters, with a reeded edge. Philadelphia coins carry no mintmark; branch-mint coins carry theirs on the reverse above the D and O of DOLLAR.

The best proofs show deeply mirrored fields in intense contrast with frosty devices, the look graded as Deep Cameo. Collectors judge circulated examples by diagnostic die features, which is how supposed business strikes have been shown to be worn proofs.

The King of the Morgans

Morgan dollars are among the most widely collected American coins, and the 1895 is the one true stopper in a full set. Its mintage is not the lowest in the series: the 1878 7 Tailfeathers proof had 250 and the 1879-O branch mint proof only about a dozen. But collectors can fill those dates with ordinary coins. For 1895 Philadelphia there is no alternative, which is why it is called the King of the Morgan Dollars.

The contrast with the next rarest date is stark: about 10,000 1893-S dollars are thought to survive, against roughly 815 1895 proofs.

The numbers

Proof mintage

880

Business strikes recorded

12,000 (June 28, 1895); none confirmed

Estimated survivors

About 815 proofs

Weight

412.5 grains (26.73 grams)

Diameter

38.1 mm

Composition

90% silver, 10% copper

Designer

George T. Morgan

PCGS population at this grade

Two at PR67+ Deep Cameo, one finer (October 2025)

Timeline

1. Oct 9, 1876

   George T. Morgan arrives at the Philadelphia Mint.

2. Feb 28, 1878

   Congress overrides President Hayes's veto of the Bland-Allison Act.

3. Mar 11, 1878

   The first Morgan dollar is struck and given to President Hayes.

4. Jul 14, 1890

   The Sherman Silver Purchase Act becomes law.

5. Nov 1, 1893

   The Sherman Act is repealed after the Panic of 1893.

6. 1895

   Philadelphia strikes 880 proof Morgan dollars.

7. Jun 28, 1895

   The Mint cashier's daily balance records 12,000 business-strike dollars.

8. Apr 22, 1918

   The Pittman Act passes; 270,232,722 silver dollars are later melted.

9. Apr 2017

   This coin, then PCGS PR67 Deep Cameo, sells for $199,750.

10. Jun 2020

    Upgraded to PR67+ Deep Cameo with CAC approval, it sells for a record $269,500.

11. Sep 12, 2024

    It sells for a record $324,000 at auction in Long Beach after more than 30 bids.

12. Oct 26, 2025

    The only other PCGS PR67+ Deep Cameo CAC example is offered online.

The world in 1895

• Feb 9, 1895

  William G. Morgan creates Mintonette, later called volleyball, in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

• May 27, 1895

  The Supreme Court decides In re Debs, upholding federal suppression of the Pullman Strike.

• Jul 4, 1895

  Katharine Lee Bates's lyrics for America the Beautiful are first published.

• Sep 3, 1895

  The first professional American football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.

• Sep 18, 1895

  Booker T. Washington delivers the Atlanta Compromise speech.

• Nov 5, 1895

  George B. Selden receives the first U.S. patent for an automobile.

• Nov 28, 1895

  The first American automobile race is run in Chicago.

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, 1895 Morgan Dollar (Proof) — 'King of Morgans' is number 48 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 (73 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Liberty on the Morgan dollar is a real Philadelphian, Anna Willess Williams, suggested as a model by the painter Thomas Eakins.
• Of six 1895 dollars sent to the Assay Commission, only two are confirmed destroyed; the fate of the other four is unknown.
• The coin in this entry sold three times in seven years, rising from $199,750 to $324,000 after an upgrade and a CAC sticker.
• One 1895 proof that traded for $500 in 1960 sat with one family for almost 60 years.
• The 1895 is not the lowest-mintage Morgan; the 1879-O branch mint proof had only about a dozen struck.