The fields on this coin are flawless, but the perfection of Libertys cheek is absolutely incredible. Impressed with a razor-sharp strike, and blessed with pristine surfaces, the obverse presents a wonderfully brilliant appearance, with the reverse of equal brilliance, but additionally kissed with a subtle rainbow of green, blue, violet, and gold toning around the periphery to the right. Technically near perfect, and with glorious eye appeal, this treasure is bound for a place of prominence in a major collection.While, even at 12.76 million pieces, the 1881-S is no where near the highest mintage of the series, though specialists agree that there are more of this date available to todays collectors than of any other Morgan dollar. Silver dollars had been held in vast quantities in the Federal Reserve banks as backing for silver certificates, but were released to circulation in the early 1960s when the United States went off the Silver Standard. At that time countless bags of previously scarce uncirculated 1881-S dollars were put away by dealers and investors. Q. David Bowers, in his 1993 <em>Encyclopedia of Silver Dollars</em>, estimated that between 4 and 6.25 million pieces of this issue still exist in Mint State! Much more conservatively, today PCGS estimates that a total of only 1,200,00 have survived, with fully half of those in Mint State. Assuming PCGS figure of 600,000 pieces is correct, at a their current total of a bit over 247,000 Mint State specimens graded, PCGS has by itself has already encapsulated 41% of the extant uncirculated population! <br />No mater what the actual number of existing pieces is, in the higher Uncirculated grades, these coins quickly become conditional rarities. While PCGS has graded a total of 9,332 1881-S Dollars in the elite Mint State Prooflike category, only five of them have achieved the lofty grade of MS-68, and none have been graded higher, although they did grade a single conditionally equal MS-68 DMPL.<br />Every Morgan dollar collector has to have an 1881-S in their collection, and to represent this rather ordinary date in a high end collection, discerning collectors try to find as fine a piece as possible. This specimen cannot be improved upon in todays market.,,PCGS# 7131. NGC ID: 2549.,PCGS Population: 5; none finer in any designation. ,
