Melts:
The Pittman Act (1918)- Introduced by Senator Key Pittman on April 9th 1918, and passed just 13 days later on April 22nd. The Pittman Act authorized the melting of no more than 350 million silver dollars into silver bullion. The vast majority of the silver bullion was bought by the British government, and sent to India to help quell the silver shortage after the huge increase in silver certificate redemptions. In total, under the Pittman Act, 270,232,722 silver dollars were melted. Almost half of all 1878-1904 Morgan dollars minted were melted!
World War II Silver Act (1942)- As mentioned in The Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan & Peace Dollars by Leroy Van Allen and George Mallis, addition silver dollars were melted during WWII for wartime uses (including the Manhattan Project). It is estimated around 50 million silver dollars were melted, what percent were Morgans (and what percent were Peace dollars) is unknown.
With the major melts taken into account, and all of the other much smaller private meltings, it is safe to say that less than half of all Morgan dollars minted remain today. It's fun to consider what could have been, and how the Morgan dollar series would have been affected if the meltings hadn't occurred. Imagine if there were twice as many Morgan dollars around as there are now?
Hoards:
The majority of Morgan dollars that were spared from the melting pots sat in a number of government vaults (some at the Treasury Department and branch offices, and others still in the Mint vaults). Throughout the '20s, '30s, '40s and '50s the dollars sat in their vaults, only relatively small numbers were paid out during this time period, mainly because there still wasn't much interest in Morgan dollars. The main use for the silver dollars during this time was at casinos, and as presents (usually during the Christmas/Hanukkah season).
The 1960's Release- It started in late 1962, during this time one of the real keys of the Morgan series was the 1903-O, which was listed at $1,500 in Uncirculated condition. So around early December, as silver dollars were being paid out for holiday demand, word got out the Philadelphia mint was paying out 1903-O Morgan dollars (and a few other valuable late date O mint coins). This really started the silver dollar boom, people rushed to Treasury Department, and other vaults to get their hands on the Morgan dollars. Practically over night the value of the 1903-O Morgan dollar plummeted, from $1,500 in Uncirculated condition to $15. These payouts continued for 2 years, finally on March 26th 1964, with only a few thousand bags remaining, the payouts were stopped. (*During this time the popularity of the Morgan dollar really began to grow.)
The GSA Sales (1970s)- On December 6th 1971, the 2.9 Million Carson City Morgan Dollars that remained in the Treasury vaults were transferred to the West Point Bullion Depository in New York. This was the first step in the famous GSA sales. The coins were then hand sorted by date, and then sorted into 1 of 3 categories; 1- Uncirculated, 2- Tarnished/Lightly Scratched, and 3- Error/Reject (Badly scratched or tarnished). From this there were 5 general catagories for the GSA sales; 1- Uncirculated CC, 2- Mixed CC, 3- Uncirculated (other mints), 4- Circulated (other mints), and 5- Unsellable (Damaged coins).
The coins were packaged into 2 different holders depending on the catagory.
GSA Hard Case: National Collectors Mint
GSA Soft Case: NGC
In total there were 7 GSA sales, 5 between 1972 and 1974, and 2 in 1980. The CC dates sold in the sale were; 1878-1885, 1889-1893, the majority of the sale was made up of CC coins from 1880-1885. The 1889, 1892 and 1893 coins are interesting, because there was only one of each date sold.
The Redfield Hoard- LaVere Redfield was a multimillionaire who lived in Reno. Redfield didn't trust the government, and didn't like to keep his money in the bank. Over the course of his life he hoarded silver coins, and stored them in his basement. Redfield died on September 6th 1974, and his estate, including 407,596 Morgan and Peace dollar, was left to his wife and niece. There were a number of lawsuits that delayed the sale of the dollars, but finally on January 27 1976 the dollars were sold to A-Mark Corporation for 7.3 million dollars. The coins were distributed in sales over a 3 years period, this was done to not overwhelm the market. Some of the most popular Morgan dates in the Hoard were: 1878 S -1882 S, 1887 S, 1889, 1890, 1890 S, 1891 S, 1896, 1897, 1897 S.
An example of a Redfield Hoard Case: Heritage Redfield
Continental-Illinois Bank Hoard- This was a massive hoard that was kept very quiet. It is estimated in John Highfill's book The Comprehensive U.S. Silver Dollar Encyclopedia there were around 1,500 bags of Morgan dollars in the hoard. (1.5 million Morgans, 1 million Uncirculated and 500,000 Circulated). All of the dollars were purchased by RARCOA and distributed by a number of companies from 1982-1984. There isn't a lot of information on the hoard, and exact date and mm aren't known. What is know is a large number of the uncirculated coins were high grade examples.
Unlike the GSA and Redfield sales, the Continental Bank Hoard coins weren't placed in a special holder. ( Heritage Continental Bank Hoard )
