1894 $1 MS DMPL

Key to Collecting: The 1894 is the first true key date in the Philadelphia Mint lineup of Morgan dollars. This year the mintage dropped to just 110,000, or less than a third of 1893, itself a low figure, indeed the smallest circulation-strike figure in the series except for the 1893-S. Examples are elusive in all grades, from well-worn on up. Mint State coins are mostly in lower ranges, through MS-62, then falling o" in availability through MS-63, more so for MS-64, and emerging as a rarity in MS-65. Proofs are readily available, and an amazing number are gems. A nice Proof furnishes an alternative for an impossible-to-find, or nearly impossible, gem Mint State coin. Circulated examples are rare as well.

Surface Quality: Usually above average in striking sharpness. Proofs are usually well struck and very attractive, sometimes white and “creamy,” rather than deeply lustrous and flashy.

Prooflike Coins: A few prooflike coins exist, including a handful of DMPLs, and are rare and desirable in high grades.

Mintage and Distribution: Delivery figures by month: January–July, 0; August, 48,000; September, 12,000; October, 50,000; November–December, 0. Few 1894 dollars were released in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several bags were paid out in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. A bag of dollars turned up in Montana circa 1961, but by that time the price of the 1894 had risen, and this quantity did not disturb the structure. In the early 1960’s a bag of mixed 1893 and 1894 dollars surfaced in San Francisco. The 1894 does not seem to have been part of the 1962 through 1964 Treasury release, save for a few scattered coins.

Mintage: 972. Delivery figures by month: January–February, 0; March, 252; April– May, 0; June, 179; July–August, 0; September, 200; October–November, 0; December, 341.

Key to Collecting: Usually well struck. Good cameo contrast. These offer a good value.

Although seven obverse and five reverse dies were made up for this coinage, it is not certain that all were used. Only two die combinations are described by VAM. Beware 1894-O dollars with tooled-away mintmarks posing as rarer 1894 Philadelphia issues.