1878 Morgans

[Merlin8971]

I purchased a five coin set of 1878 Morgan silver dollars. The set consisted of a 1878-P eight tail feathers, a 1878-P seven tail feathers, a 1878-P seven over eight tail feathers, a 1878 CC Morgan silver dollar, and a 1878-S morgan silver dollar. I got the set for a reasonable price, a little under bid.

Upon inspection once home, I discovered the "Eight Tail Feathers" variety also had the FS-$1-1878-009 "extra feather kidney bean" (Cherrypickers Vol II pg 310) VAM 9 under the left (right wing to viewer) wing. The 1878 seven over eight tail feathers variety also had two spikes on the eye just below the eyelid. (Cherrypickers Vol II pg 311 (top) shows a double spike on the 1878 eight tail feathers photo, but both spikes look like the lower spike in the Cherrypickers photo (angled as arrows show in my photo.

The 1878 seven over eight tail feathers and the 1878 seven tail feathers both have radial cracking thru the letters from the beginning of United and goes clockwise around to the two L's in Dollar. Hard to see in photos.

[Merlin8971]

More Photos

Here are more photos

[Merlin8971]

The Rest of the photos

Here are the rest of the photos

[wavysteps]

To be honest with you, I am not a VAM guy. However, I do very much appreciate the work that has been done on both the Morgan and the Peace dollars in establishing the many and varied anomalies found.

BJ Neff

[Merlin8971]

I know

I know what you mean wavysteps. I have stayed away from collecting Morgans for the most part. Early on I focused on Kennedy sets and Franklin sets. I was aware of all the hype around Morgans and their varieties. At one time (when I was young and stupid) I worked for Sperry New Holland in Pa and they had a tradition that they would give each employee five Morgan silver dollars as part of their Christmas bonus. I worked there seven years. Years before the company (New Holland Machine) would give the entire Christmas bonus in Morgan silver dollars. One could find nearly any date and mintmark and all the coins were uncirculated. I kept the coins but did not lust after them as I should have, and my teenage son tended to misappropriate them for playing video games. But, that is neither here nor there.

I do have a Red Book on Morgans. I guess I'll have to read it now. Putting all the Kennedy's together was a long adventure and I know that collecting a set of Morgan would take three to five times as long and a much higher budget.

[Merlin8971]

Upon further inspection

Upon further inspection I found that there are bold repunched dates on the eight tail feathers 1878-P and the seven over eight tail feathers 1878-P also has a strong repunched date on it. The photo of the obverse of the 1878-P seven over eight tail feathers show a very distinct doubling of both the 8's and especially the 7. The photo of the eight tail feathers 1878-P posted does not show the repunched doubling of the date only because of the slightly out of focus photo, but it is there.

Of course it could also indicate die doubling.

[Merlin8971]

Close up

Close up of the date of the 1878-p