BY CHUCK HAVILAND

Early US dollars no longer in circulation or are extremely rare:

The Spanish dollar was widely used in the colonies before 1794. The us minted  the “Flowing hair’ dollar coin in 1794 & 1795.  Its composition was 89% silver and weighed 26.96 grams. The “Draped Bust”, with the small eagle was minted in 1795 – 1798 its composition was the same as the Flowing Hair dollar.   The “Draped Bust with the “Heraldic Eagle” was minted from 1798 – 1804.  Its composition was unchanged. The “Gobrecht” dollar was minted from 1836 – 1839, with some coins being minted from the 1850’s to the 1870’s.

The “Trade dollar” was minted from 1873 to 1885, mainly for circulation in Asia. Its composition was slightly different being minted at 90 %  (0.7874  oz pure silver) and weighed at 27.22 grams.  These exact weights are critical to determine if the coin was counterfeit .

US dollars in current circulation:

The “Morgan dollar” (Figure 1) was minted from 1878 – 1904 & 1921, its composition was 90% silver (0.77344 oz of pure silver), with a total weight of 26.73 grams.  At that time the federal mints were in Philadelphia (no mint mark), New Orleans  used an “o” for its mint mark, Carson City used “cc”, Denver used “d” and San Francisco used as “s”.

The Peace dollar (Figure 2) was minted from 1921 – 1928 and  1934 & 1935.  Its composition was the same as the Morgan dollar.

The last of the big dollar coins was the Eisenhower dollar (Figure 3), which was minted from 1971 – 1978. No dollar coins were made.  The circulation issues were made of copper-nickel, with a weight of 22.68 grams. The collectors coins were made of 40% silver, but only for 1971 – 1974 &  1976.

The “Susan B. Anthony” dollar (Figure 4) was minted from 1979 – 1981 & 1999. Its composition was copper – nickel.  Due to its size 26.5 mm (vs 38.1 mm Eisenhower dollar) the dollar coin was never widely accepted.  The quarter  (at 24.3 mm) was often confused by this small of a dollar coin. No silver S. B. A dollars were made.

From 2000 – 2008 the “Sacagawea” dollar coin (Figure 5) was minted. Its composition was .77 copper, .12 zinc, .07 manganese and  .04 nickel. No silver or gold coins were minted.

The  “Presidential” dollar coins (Figure 6) were minted starting in 2007 and continuing to 2016, unless other presidents can qualify for this set. There are four presidential dollar coins created each year along with the Sacagawea dollar coins.

Starting in 2009 “Native American” dollar coins (Figure 7) were produced using the Sacagawea dollar coins obverse and introducing a different reverse each year. In 2009 it commemorates agriculture by illustrating a woman planting seeds (Figure 8), the 2010 commemorates the great tree of peace (Figure 9),  the 2011 commemorates the great Wampanoag Indian Nation (Figure 10) and the 2012 coin commemorates the great trade routes (Figure 11).

Coins can be valued by two simple methods; its melt value for the minerals therein or by its numismatic value.  When silver is selling for $20. per oz, then the Morgan dollar has a melt vale of approximately $15.65, the same is true for the Peace dollar, the Eisenhower dollars that contain 40 % silver have a melt value of approximately $6.40 (not all Eisenhower dollars contain silver!