Rare American Coins and Prooflike Morgan and Peace Silver Dollars

A prooflike silver dollar is struck from a polished die that produces a reflective surface usually on the field and occasionally on the device. Prooflike coins were intended for circulation and no special care was taken in their handling.

Most prooflike Morgan silver dollars are boldly struck, but a few will lack full detail. The degree of reflectivity varies from mirror like, to little more than a regular frosty circulation grade silver dollar, which is known as semi-prooflike.

Prooflike silver dollars are highly desired among collectors due to their tremendous eye appeal, and form a special niche in the market.

Morgan dates can have a high circulation strike number, with only a few prooflike specimens or just the opposite can happen. The degree of reflectivity will vary from date to date, and mint to mint.

Three factors contribute to a circulation strike silver dollar looking like a proof. They are: reflectivity of the mirror surface, degree of contrast between the device and field, and mint made surface imperfections resulting from careless handling.

The cameo version of the Morgan silver dollar is the closest thing to an actual proof coin of any of the business strikes. They are the easiest to identify and of course the most valuable.

What's known as brilliant prooflike Morgans have a shiny finish on both the fields and devices. They can be distinguished from polished coins because the date, lettering and mintmark won't be shiny. Obviously this won't happen on a polished example.

A grey brilliant prooflike silver dollar has a subdued luster. It is reflective, but will never appear cameo. Because these coins aren't easily recognizable as the cameo, or brilliant, they aren't as desirable.

Prooflike dollars show bag marks, abrasions and wear very easily. They frequently have annoying hairline swirls in the fields caused by incomplete die polishing.

The mirrored surfaces are easily dulled or destroyed. Temperature and humidity changes over the years can produce cloudy or milky spots on the reflective surfaces. Salt water will also ruin their surfaces.

Several factors alone, or in combination with others contribute to the prooflike traits of Morgan silver dollars. They are:

First, the master die was a cameo die with a highly polished field. This was then transferred to the working die. Generally, the first 500 to 2000 coins struck from these dies have the attributes of a proof.

Cameo circulated Morgans were fairly common in the early years, and had disappeared by 1900. This is because the cameo master die had weakened with duplication of working dies over the years. Die deterioration made successive examples less reflective, and therefore semi-prooflike in appearance.

Second is in the planchets. Planchets formed by new rollers would have a shinier surface than ones made by rollers worn from service in later years.

Third is when left over proof silver dollar dies were pressed into service after their initial use was complete. They still had a lot of working life left in them and made exquisite business strike coins.

With so many prooflike Morgan silver dollar specimens produced, you might wonder about proof and prooflike Peace dollars. Well, there aren't any. A possible reason could be that Peace dollar working dies weren't basined (or polished).

Technology advances had eliminated the need to individually hand polish working dies by the early 1920s. There also weren't any proof Peace dollars struck. Therefore none could be pressed into service for business strikes.