1893-O Morgan Silver Dollar. MS-64 (PCGS).
A remarkable condition rarity to represent this elusive key date New Orleans Mint entry in the Morgan dollar series. Warmly patinated surfaces exhibit powder blue and champagne-gold peripheral highlights around pearl gray centers. The strike is a bit soft over the central high points, typical of the issue, but the detail is appreciably sharper toward the rims. Luster quality is superior in an 1893-O dollar, both sides with a softly frosted texture that reveals its greatest intensity at direct lighting angles. Carefully preserved and expectably smooth for the assigned grade, this coin comes highly recommended for inclusion in an advanced Morgan dollar set. At just 300,000 coins struck the 1893-O is the lowest mintage New Orleans Mint Morgan dollar. Apart from limited releases from the Cash Room of the Treasury Department Building from 1948 through 1955, this issue has never entered numismatic channels in quantity. By the late 1950s, in fact, the scarcity of the 1893-O in Mint State was already an established fact in the rare coin market, which conclusion was reinforced by the absence of this issue in the Treasury Department releases of 1962 to 1964. Poorly produced and preserved, as an issue, the collector who is fortunate enough to locate an Uncirculated example in today's market is apt to be viewing an aesthetically unappealing coin in the MS-60 to MS-63 range. With sharply struck Gems all but unknown, the few well struck, lustrous and overall smooth MS-64s known to PCGS and NGC represent the finest realistically obtainable for this issue as far as most Morgan dollar enthusiasts are concerned. This is just such a coin, and it is sure to see spirited bidding.
PCGS# 7224. NGC ID: 255T.
PCGS Population: 98; 14 finer in this category (MS-65+ finest).
From the Jones Collection.