1893-S Morgan Dollar: The King of the Morgan Series

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The 1893-S at a glance

The 1893-S Morgan dollar is the single most important date in the entire Morgan series. Only 100,000 pieces were struck as business coins at the San Francisco Mint in 1893, the lowest mintage of any regular-issue Morgan dollar across the full 1878 to 1921 run.

Because the mintage was so small and because a national financial crisis broke out the same year, most of the coins entered commerce quickly and wore heavily. Uncirculated survivors are rare enough that a single well-preserved example has crossed the seven-figure line at public auction.

The 1895 Philadelphia issue is scarcer still, but it was struck only as 880 proof coins, with no confirmed business strikes. That difference matters. The 1893-S is the rarest Morgan dollar a working-class collector could plausibly find in change or in a family estate. The 1895 proof is a coin that spent its entire life in a collector cabinet.

Why so few were struck

The 1893-S was born into a hostile year. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 had raised the Treasury silver-purchase quota to 4.5 million ounces per month. By 1893 the political mood had reversed. The Sherman Act was repealed on November 1 of that year, ending large-scale silver-dollar coinage almost immediately.

The Panic of 1893 hit at the same moment. Industrial firms failed, banks tightened credit, and the Treasury faced pressure to defend its gold reserves. Silver-dollar production dropped sharply as the economy contracted. The San Francisco Mint issued only 100,000 Morgan dollars for the entire year.

Compare that to the 1878-S at 9.77 million pieces, or the 1921-S at 21.7 million pieces, and the scale of the 1893-S becomes clear. It is not simply a low-mintage coin. It is a two-order-of-magnitude outlier for its own mint.

Verified physical specifications

The 1893-S shares the standard Morgan specifications. A coin sold as a genuine 1893-S that does not match every measurable attribute in the table below is a fake, a replica, or a completely different piece.

Where the S mint mark sits

The mint mark is the single most valuable letter on the coin. On a Morgan dollar the mint mark, when present, sits on the reverse below the wreath. It is centered between the D and the O of the word DOLLAR, just above the space between the eagle's tail feathers and the wreath ribbon.

An S in that position, on a coin dated 1893, is the S you are looking for. A missing mark means the coin was struck at Philadelphia and is a common, much less valuable date. Any other letter in that position on a 1893 Morgan is not correct for the series and points to alteration or fabrication.

The genuine S mint mark on a 1893-S has a specific shape and a specific spacing that trained graders and die specialists recognize on sight. That combination of shape, spacing, and die state is why every 1893-S sold at a serious price must be certified by an independent grading service first.

Why survivors are so scarce

Three factors compound to make surviving 1893-S coins rare in any grade, and extraordinarily rare in mint state.

First, the original mintage was tiny. Only 100,000 pieces were struck. That is the starting universe from which every surviving 1893-S must be drawn today.

Second, the coins circulated hard. Silver dollars did not circulate widely in the eastern United States, but the San Francisco strikes stayed in western commerce, where dollar coins were used at the counter. Most 1893-S coins picked up years of wear in the 1890s and early 1900s.

Third, the Pittman Act of 1918 authorized the melting and recoining of up to 350 million silver dollars. Numismatists have long thought that many 1893-S coins were destroyed in that program. Numismatic News has estimated that fewer than 100 examples survive today in true uncirculated condition.

How grade changes the price by tier

Condition is the largest lever on any 1893-S valuation, and the lever is steeper than on almost any other United States coin. A single grade point can double or triple the price at the high end.

A well-worn example graded from Good to Very Fine still carries a four-figure numismatic premium over the silver melt floor. Even in the lowest circulated grades, a genuine 1893-S is worth many multiples of any common-date Morgan.

An original circulated coin in Extremely Fine or About Uncirculated jumps a tier. The market rewards remaining detail heavily on this date because most survivors are heavily worn. Original surfaces, un-cleaned, are the specific attribute that certified buyers pay for.

A certified mint-state coin is where the price behavior becomes unusual. MS-60 examples trade for figures many times the AU price. MS-63 to MS-64 examples reach the deep five figures and above. MS-65 and higher grades are essentially never encountered outside of major auction sales, and each single grade point at the top of the scale can shift the price by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Public auction results and what they mean

The published auction record on the 1893-S is short but instructive. Each of these results is a real, sourced sale price at a public auction, not an asking price or a dealer quote.

These are the visible top of the market. Circulated grades trade in a wide range that depends on the specific grade, on whether the coin is certified, and on whether the surfaces are original. A recent AU-58 in original condition is a very different coin from a VG-8 with a cleaned surface, and the price gap between them can easily be 10 to 1.

No serious price on a 1893-S should be committed to without a current auction comparison in the exact certified grade from an independent grading service. Verbal estimates and dealer counter offers on a raw coin are not adequate.

Silver melt floor: the trivial number

The silver melt floor on a 1893-S is essentially irrelevant to its market value. The math is worth showing anyway, because it illustrates the size of the numismatic premium.

The added-S counterfeit problem

The Numismatic Guaranty Company has listed the 1893-S among the top ten most counterfeited United States coins. Coin World has reported that the United States marketplace has seen thousands of fake 1893-S Morgan dollars in circulation among collectors.

The most common attack is the added mint mark. A bad actor takes a genuine 1893 Philadelphia Morgan, which carries no mint mark, and adds a fabricated S to the reverse in the correct position under the wreath. The base coin is real silver, the correct weight, the correct diameter, and it dates from the correct year. The only fabricated element is the letter itself.

Skilled counterfeiters also produce cast and die-struck copies of the entire coin. Some of these are made using dies pulled from a real Morgan dollar, which makes them harder to identify at first glance. Weight is often close, but diameter, edge reeding count, and specific die state usually give the fake away under magnification.

Detection tips a knowledgeable collector uses on any candidate 1893-S:

• Examine the S mint mark under 10x magnification for tool marks, wrong shape, wrong depth, or a slight halo of disturbed metal around the letter.
• Weigh the coin on a jewelry scale that reads to two decimal places. A weight far outside 26.5 to 27.0 grams flags a plated core or a base-metal replica.
• Count the edge reeds. A genuine Morgan dollar has 189 reeds. A cast copy usually falls short by several reeds and shows a mushy edge under a loupe.
• Compare the die state, letter spacing, and specific reverse features to a certified reference photograph before treating the coin as authentic.

These checks screen out most fakes, but they are not sufficient at the price levels the 1893-S commands. Any purchase at four figures or above must be certified by an independent grading service before funds move.

Die diagnostics: one obverse, two reverses

The 1893-S has a specific advantage for authentication that most Morgan dates lack. Every one of the 100,000 pieces was struck from a single obverse die, and only two different reverse dies were used across the entire mintage.

That means every genuine 1893-S carries a very limited menu of die markers on both sides. Trained graders and die specialists at PCGS, NGC, and other independent services know each die state in detail, including position of stars, letter spacing, and small distinguishing features that most counterfeits fail to reproduce.

This is why third-party certification is not optional on this date. A grader can compare a candidate coin against the known die states in seconds and reject a fake that would fool an untrained buyer for hours. Any 1893-S offered raw at a market price should be treated as suspect until it is certified.

The cleaned-coin trap

The single fastest way to destroy value on a genuine 1893-S is to clean it. A bright, shiny surface may look more valuable to an untrained eye, but independent grading services detect cleaning almost every time.

A cleaned coin gets a details grade rather than a numeric grade. On common dates the market discount is 40 to 70 percent. On the 1893-S, where the coin already carries a heavy numismatic premium, the dollar-value loss on cleaning is much larger in absolute terms. A cleaned MS-61 candidate that would have sold for tens of thousands raw becomes a details coin worth a fraction of that number.

The rule is simple. Do not clean the coin. Not with silver polish, not with a jewelry cloth, not with baking soda, not with an ultrasonic bath, not with a rinse under warm water. If a suspected 1893-S is dirty, leave it dirty and let a professional look at it exactly as found.

How to work through a candidate coin

The steps below are the sequence a serious hobbyist runs on any coin claimed to be a 1893-S. Follow them in order before treating the coin as anything more than silver bullion or a common-date Morgan.

1. Confirm the coin is a Morgan dollar. The obverse shows Liberty facing left in a Phrygian cap and wreath. The reverse shows an eagle with outstretched wings. Peace dollars, struck from 1921 through 1935, look different and are not part of this series.
2. Read the date at the bottom of the obverse. The date must read 1893 clearly. If any digit is soft, tooled, or shows disturbed metal around it, treat the coin as suspect.
3. Find the S mint mark on the reverse. Turn the coin over. Look below the wreath, centered between the D and the O of DOLLAR. A clean S in that position is what you want. No letter means Philadelphia, which is not the same coin.
4. Weigh the coin on a jewelry scale. A genuine Morgan weighs 26.73 grams. A digital scale that reads to two decimal places is enough. Any weight far outside 26.5 to 27.0 grams points to a fake, a plated core, or a modern replica.
5. Screen the S mint mark under magnification. Look for tool marks, a slight halo around the letter, or a shape that does not match a genuine S. Any of these flags an added mint mark on a genuine 1893 Philadelphia coin.
6. Do not clean the coin. Any polishing, dipping, or scrubbing lowers the grade a professional will assign. Cleaning can cut value by half or more. Preserve the coin exactly as found.
7. Submit to an independent grading service before selling. A certified grade is the only price signal the market takes seriously on a suspected 1893-S. Given the added-S counterfeit problem and the die diagnostics only trained graders know, this step is not optional.

What your coin is probably not

1893-S Morgan dollar FAQ

By the Harry’s Coins Editorial team. Last reviewed August 2026.