1881-S Morgan Silver Dollar. MS-68 (PCGS).This lovely Superb Gem combines a brilliant reverse with an obverse dressed in bold olive, blue, salmon pink and antique gold iridescence. Fully struck throughout, as befits the issue, with intense mint luster to virtually pristine surfaces.While, even at 12,760,000 coins struck, the 1881-S has nowhere near the highest mintage, specialists agree that there are more of this issue available to todays collectors than of any other in the Morgan dollar series. Silver dollars had been held in vast quantities in the Federal Reserve banks as backing for silver certificates, but were released into circulation during the early to mid 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 silver dollar encyclopedia, estimates that between 4 and 6.25 million examples of this issue still exist in Mint State! Much more conservatively, PCGS estimates that a total of only 1,200,00 have survived, with fully half of those in Mint State.No matter what the actual number of existing pieces is, the 1881-S is a truly common issue in terms of total number of Mint State coins extant. In the finest grades, however, even this otherwise plentiful issue develops into a significant condition rarity. This is one of the best preserved and highest graded examples, a coin that will please even the most discerning numismatist.
