Rare American Coins and the True Rarity of U.S. Silver Dollars

Generic silver dollars in grades MS-60 and above seem common because there are over 6,859,000 NGC and PCGS graded MS-60+ Trade, Morgan, and Peace dollars. At first glance, Morgan & Peace dollars seem anything but rare.

There are an estimated 40-50 million uncirculated pre-1921 Morgans and 30-40 million uncirculated Peace dollars. The majority of these would grade MS-60 to MS-62 condition, especially in the Peace series.

Almost 850 million silver American dollars were minted between 1878 and 1935. The Pittman Act of 1918 resulted in 270 million Morgans being melted, then later replaced with 86 million 1921 Morgan, and 190 million Peace dollars.

Then, 52,739,000 Peace dollars were melted in 1942 for the WWII effort and never replaced. The total number of Morgan and Peace silver dollars melted between 1883 and 1964 is 333 million. Total surviving Morgan and Peace coins in all grades is around 514 million.

Investment level Morgan and Peace series coins in grades MS-65+ have a combined PCGS and NGC population of 975,000. This seems like a lot of silver American dollar coins available.

If you multiply the figure 975,000 by their average bargain price of $2100 that gives us a pitifully small market of $2.0475 billion. When you compare this to the hundreds of billions of dollars traded daily on equity and exchange markets, the rare silver dollar investment market is amazingly small. There are many Americans with a net worth of more than the total value of the investment grade rare silver dollar market.

Circulated and lower grade common MS silver American dollars are worth only a small price over their spot or melt value. Their market is very liquid and affordable for the average income silver dollar investor.

1794-1804 flowing hair/draped bust, 1840-1873 Liberty Seated & 1873-1885 Trade Dollars are incredibly rare compared to the Morgan & Peace series. 42.2 million Liberty Seated and 35.9 million Trade Dollars were minted.

27 million Trade Dollars were exported to the Orient, never to return to the US. That leaves only 8.9 million examples in all grades for collecting. Even though the Flowing Hair and Draped Bust series coins weren't melted by the US Government, their survival rate hasn't been high.

A total of 162,000 Flowing Hair and 1,284,000 Draped Bust examples were originally minted. Studies show a 3% to 5% survival rate for these early silver dollars. That leaves a combined total of 43,000 to 76,000, 1794 to 1803 silver dollars remain in all conditions.

If 90 million uncirculated silver American dollars from all years of production remain in existence, perhaps one out of four people in the US could own an original issue, uncirculated example. Modern issue uncirculated Silver Eagles are far more plentiful than all the original silver dollars put together.

Even though the numbers sound high, when more people get interested in collecting silver dollars issued and intended as currency, there aren't enough to go around. I'd like to say modern Silver Eagles will always remain common, but there may come a time when they're considered rare also.