1895 Morgan Silver Dollar. Proof-64 (NGC). A beautiful Proof Morgan dollar irrespective of date, both sides exhibit deep violet toning with accents of golden iridescence. The fields are deep and watery, faintly contrasting the more frosty design elements, particularly so on the reverse. Carefully preserved and delightfully attractive to examine under a light source.As the sole Proof-only issue in the popular Morgan silver dollar series of 1878 to 1921, the 1895 has long enjoyed near-legendary status. Early generations of collectors were puzzled by an entry in Mint records that showed a circulation strike delivery of 12,000 coins for this year, and many theories arose to explain why the only 1895-dated examples were of the 880-piece Proof issue. Some said the circulation strikes were never released and were subsequently melted as part of the 270,232,722 silver dollars destroyed under the terms of the 1918 Pittman Act. Others believed these coins were never struck at all and the 12,000-piece figure represented nothing more than a bookkeeping error on the part of Mint personnel. Modern numismatic scholarship, however, suggests that the 12,000-coin mintage reported for 1895 represents a bookkeeping adjustment by the Mint to account for a final delivery of 1894-dated silver dollars. In any event, collectors seeking to assemble complete date and mint sets of Morgan dollars must acquire a Proof for the 1895.An interesting and very curious aspect of Proof 1895 dollars is that research at the American Numismatic Association Headquarters found that five (!) different obverse dies were used to create the mintage of just 880 coins. With superior technical quality and a pleasing appearance, the coin offered here offers a particularly important bidding opportunity.
