1883-O $1 MS PL

Key to Collecting: Produced in quantity, the typical 1883-O coin seen today is apt to have unsatisfactory luster and a typical strike. Cherrypicking is definitely recommended, this making all the difference between your high-quality collection and the ordinary quality of most others. For the collector of certified coins, New Orleans dollars are a breeze: Look at the label and write a check.

Surface Quality: Striking varies all over the place for the 1883-O, with some quite flat at the centers, and others needle sharp, the latter being in the distinct minority. Careful selection is advised. The 1883-O is common in Mint State, and thus there are many opportunities to view candidates for your collection. The luster ranges from medium frosty to somewhat dull and grainy. Some were made from worn-out dies past retirement age, and these have granularity and metal flow lines. Cherrypicking is again advised, this in combination with seeking a sharp strike.

Prooflike Coins: Prooflike coins are plentiful, but the majority show poor contrast between the fields and the devices, or are heavily bagmarked, or both. A DMPL coin with cameo contrast is a joy to behold.

Branch Mint Proofs: A numismatic tradition exists, dating back well over a century, that 12 full Proofs were struck of the 1883-O Morgan dollar. And, they may have been, although the differentiation between a cameo DMPL and a “branch mint Proof” would be diffcult to explain. Proofs have been certified on at least two instances.

Mintage and Distribution: Although AU examples of 1883-O dollars were aplenty in the early twentieth century, no information has been located about Treasury releases of Mint State bags. However, this never was a rare issue. Bags were released in the 1930’s, many came out of hiding in 1952, and others were paid out until about 1957, after which time no new finds were reported in the numismatic community. Then, in November 1962 and for a short time afterward, many bags were released from a Philadelphia Mint vault sealed in 1929, exhausting the supply. It is believed that the bulk of about 10,000,000 coins from that vault were 1883-O, 1884-O, and 1885-O.

Many die varieties exist from among 40 obverse and 36 reverse dies sent to New Orleans for this year’s coinage.33 Perhaps the most significant is VAM-4, with the mintmark sharply doubled, the traces of an earlier mintmark appearing below the final, heavy mintmark. Some of VAM-1 are from a rotated reverse die, usually 35° to 75°.