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1895 S$1 PR63 ANACS. If not for an aberration in Mint

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:11,000.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1895 S$1 PR63 ANACS. If not for an aberration in Mint
<B>1895<img border='0' src='http://www.heritagecoins.com/images/star.gif' width=10 height=10>$1> PR63 ANACS.</B></I> If not for an aberration in Mint history, the proof Morgan dollars of 1895 would be thought of like those of any other year. The mintage of 880 specimens is not unusual; 972 proofs were minted in 1894, and 762 were minted in 1896. The business strikes of the year (or rather, the lack thereof) make this issue what it is: the undisputed key to the series.<BR> Among the most recent researchers to tackle the 1895 Morgan dollar is Roger W. Burdette, whose <I>Philly 1895 Morgan dollars</B></I> appears in the July 3, 2006 <I>Coin Values</B></I> supplement to <I>Coin World.</B></I> Burdette notes that the Philadelphia "proof" dies could have been used to make business strikes, and he rejects previous theories that the 12,000 business strikes represented dollars dated 1894: "There is no documentation to support asserting the pieces were actually struck coins dated 1894 except for one year-end annotation."<BR> Q. David Bowers, in 2004's <I>The Official Red Book of Morgan Silver Dollars,</B></I> claims that "...the dollar was represented by a single Proof" when the Assay Commission met. Burdette, however, cites the Assay Commission records for 1896 and claims that six business strikes and four proofs went to the Commission. Two coins were melted, leaving four proofs intact...and four business strikes. Burdette concludes that 12,000 business strikes dated 1895 were struck, but never left the Mint and were later melted under the Pittman Act. The only hope for a business strike to survive, then, would be as one of the four assay pieces. To be recognized as a business strike, the coin would have to be sufficiently well-preserved as to show a difference in luster, and a coin kept as a pocket piece, for example, could easily wear down to Very Fine or below. Indeed, NGC has certified four 1895 Morgan dollars as impaired proofs in Very Fine; could one have been a business strike? Ther