For half a century the 1903-O was one of the most famous coins in America. Its 3,720,000 mintage looked ordinary on paper, but almost none could actually be found: the coins had gone into Treasury vaults and stayed there, and collectors concluded that most had been melted under the Pittman Act. In uncirculated condition it was priced among the great rarities of the series.
Then came the autumn of 1962. The Treasury began paying out silver dollars from long-sealed vaults, and bag after thousand-coin bag of gleaming, uncirculated 1903-O dollars poured into daylight. One of the most valuable Morgans in the book became a common coin within weeks. It remains the most spectacular collapse of a rarity in American numismatic history.
The lesson outlived the price. Mintage is permanent; rarity is circumstantial. The 1903-O did not change in 1962, but everything the market believed about it did, and every survival estimate published since carries a little of that humility.
The coin this site was built to explain. Today the 1903-O is an affordable, usually well-struck, lustrous New Orleans dollar, and owning one means owning the best cautionary tale in the hobby. Buy it uncirculated: that is the form the vaults preserved, and it costs little more than a worn one.
| Issue | Mint | Mintage |
|---|---|---|
| 1903 Morgan Dollar | Philadelphia | 4,652,000 |
| 1903-O Morgan Dollar | New Orleans | 4,450,000 |
| 1903-S Morgan Dollar | San Francisco | 1,241,000 |
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.