The 1893-S was struck as the silver dollar program was collapsing. The Panic of 1893 was breaking across the country, and by November of that year Congress had repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, the law that forced the dollars into existence. San Francisco's output for the year came to 100,000 coins, the lowest circulation mintage of any Morgan dollar.
There was no vault hoard waiting to rescue this date. The coins went into Western commerce and stayed there, which is why the overwhelming majority of survivors are well worn. The 1893-S in mint state is one of the legendary rarities of American numismatics: an MS-67 example sold for $2,086,875 in 2021, a record for the series.
Because even heavily worn examples are valuable, the 1893-S is a prime target for counterfeiters, whether by adding a mintmark, altering a date, or outright casting. Well-documented die diagnostics exist for the genuine coin, and every major grading service knows them. There is no version of this purchase where buying raw makes sense.
The king of the circulation strikes. If the 1889-CC is the coin that finishes a Carson City set, the 1893-S is the coin that finishes the whole series, and for most collectors it is the last one they buy. A well-worn, honest, certified example is a perfectly respectable way to own it; that is how most of the mintage survives.
| Issue | Mint | Mintage |
|---|---|---|
| 1893 Morgan Dollar | Philadelphia | 378,000 |
| 1893-O Morgan Dollar | New Orleans | 300,000 |
| 1893-S Morgan Dollar | San Francisco | 100,000 |
| 1893-CC Morgan Dollar | Carson City | 677,000 |
Mintage figures: United States Mint, Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, cross-checked across independent published references. Specifications: United States Mint coin specifications.