Coin dates are similar to those social dates of high school days. No two were exactly the same and some definitely better than others. When it comes to coins the precise date and mint mark are of paramount importance in determining if a given coin is scarce, valuable or worthless. It does not matter if one coin is older than another. That is not what determines the rarity. What is important is the exact date.
Someone called me recently to ask what an old silver dollar was worth. The caller was pretty sure it was dated 1918. I was positive that none were made that year. Then it turned out “the date might have been something else, but it was very old regardless of what it was.” A description like that is just not good enough to determine the value of any coin. And it probably is not a good idea to rely on memory when investigating the qualities of such an item.
At a coin show I overheard someone attempting to sell a 1938 Lincoln cent for one million dollars. The proud owner had just learned that they were that much and somehow managed to locate two of them in a jar of loose change. It didn’t seem strange that two of them would turn up that easily, and the owner did not remember where the information came from or the exact date or mint mark that was involved. Needless to say no one at the coin show was interested in the coins that were worth no more than two cents each, and the owner went home brokenhearted.
When discussing old coins it is important to have an exact description, and to refer to a coin book for information as to rarity, value, and whether or not such things exist.
1878 Carson City Mint Morgan Silver Dollar
The Morgan Silver Dollar is named after its designer George T. Morgan who was an engraver with the United States Mint in Philadelphia. The obverse portrays Lady Liberty wearing a slave’s cap (an ancient symbol of freedom) with the word Liberty inscribed on a ribbon. The reverse features an American eagle holding both the olive branch of peace and arrows of war.
This is the largest US silver coin ever made for circulation: it is almost 1-1/2 inches in diameter and it contains over 3/4 ounce of .900 pure silver. Due to their high silver content, more than 50% of all Morgan Silver Dollars were melted by the U.S. Government to help cover the costs of World War I. Millions more were melted for World War II. And even more were privately melted in the 1980s when silver reached $50 an ounce. As a result just a fraction remain today, with even fewer available from the Carson City mint.