1895 Morgan Silver Dollar

The 1895 Morgan Silver Dollar fills Morgan Dollar year set collectors on a shoestring budget with dread. It is quite reasonable to expect a minimum outlay of $500 to $800 for any example of an 1895 Morgan Dollar. If your goal is a complete date-and-mintmark set of Morgan Dollars, the 1895 Philadelphia piece will present a significant challenge.

The 1895 Morgan Silver Dollar was produced in three mints: New Orleans, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. The New Orleans Mint used an "O" and the San Francisco Mint an "S”. The main mint in Philadelphia did not use a mintmark. Since no circulation strikes are known to exist for the 1895 Morgan Dollar, proof examples are extremely expensive.

1895 Morgan Silver Dollar Mintage Figures

•          1895 Proof (no circulation strikes are known to exist): 880; $35,000+
•          1895-O: 450,000; $750+
•          1895-S: 400,000; $500+

For the scarce 1895 Philadelphia Morgan Dollars that still exist, they most often only come up as auction pieces, though a few will appear in the hands of established coin dealers. Interestingly, the only version of the Philadelphia issue known to exist is a proof; there are no indicated business strikes. As for the New Orleans and San Francisco issues, expect a hide-and-seek game when it comes to tracking down either of the two branch mint pieces from 1895. While neither branch mint 1895 Morgan Dollar is nearly as rare as the 1895 Philadelphia Morgan Dollars, you will still have to overcome some hurdles while you are looking to add those pieces to your collection. It’s prudent that any 1895 Morgan Dollar you buy should be in a slab with a recognizable third-party logo.