The silver dollar's history in the United States precedes the notable
Morgan and Peace silver dollars. Congress first authorized the silver
dollar on April 2, 1792. For the next thirteen years, various silver
dollars were minted. The minting of these dollars was suspended until
1835 when Gobrecht dollar varieties (named for engraver Christian Gobrecht)
began minting. The Liberty Seated silver dollar followed in 1840 and
continued until Congress eliminated coinage of the silver dollar in
an act commonly referred to as the "Crime of '73". This Act, which moved
the United States from a bimetallic standard (a monetary standard based
upon gold and silver) to a gold standard was reviled by miners and the
average American who had no ready means of converting their silver coins
to gold.
The Crime of '73 sparked the Free Silver Movement, which advocated
the unlimited coinage of silver. For five years after this Act, only
slightly larger Trade Dollars
were minted for export demand in Asia. The vast majority of citizens
of the United States would not see a newly minted silver coin during
this time.
The Free Silver Movement's first major achievement was the Bland-Allison
Act of 1878 which resulted in the re-emergence of the silver dollar
in the Morgan type.
The victory was two-fold for proponents of a silver standard. Not only
was the silver dollar restored as legal tender (which marked the beginning
of the Morgan Dollar), but the U.S. Treasury was also required to purchase
between $2 and $4 million worth of silver for coining dollars. Certainly
much of this silver came from the famed silver Comstock Lode in western
Nevada. In 1890, Congress passed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act (over
a presidential veto by Benjamin Harrison) which increased the government
purchase of silver by over 50%.
The Morgan silver dollar was minted continuously from 1878 until 1904
when the United States exhausted its silver bullion supply. In 1918,
the Pittman Act authorized the melting of over 270 million silver dollars.
The Morgan Silver Dollar was reintroduced in 1921 with slight modifications,
but this would represent its last year of minting. The next year the
Peace Silver Dollar
was introduced to commemorate the end of World War I. It was minted
until 1928 and again in 1934 and 1935.
Silver continued to be the principal metal in many coins until the
Coinage Act of 1965, which was enacted to reduce or eliminate silver
in American coins. Coins minted after this date contained significantly
less silver or none at all. Therefore, many Americans started hoarding
silver dollars in circulation. The
Binion Collection is particularly special not only because of the
Binion family pedigree, but also because of his hoard of uncirculated
silver dollars. Many of these investment-quality silver dollars are
higher-grade.
The United States has minted only two other silver dollars after the
Peace dollar was
discontinued in 1935. Eisenhower dollars, minted from 1971-78, are composed
of only 40% silver, but were only available directly for sale by the
U.S. Mint. The Silver
American Eagles of today are bullion coins meaning that even though
they have a face value of $11, they are actually worth the spot price
of silver plus a small premium.
