1896 Morgan Silver Dollar--Broken Collar @ 12, 6 and 9 OClock--MS-62 (NGC). A particularly appealing example of this plentiful Philadelphia Mint Morgan dollar issue, the NGC holder allows ready appreciation of the Mint error at the designated clock positions around the edge. The surfaces are sharply struck on both sides, the obverse satiny in texture and dressed in vivid silver-rose and cobalt blue patina. The reverse, on the other hand, is semi-prooflike in finish with blushes of rose-russet peripheral toning that gives way to pale silver tinting in and around the centers.This rare and intriguing Mint error was discovered late in 2014 and became the subject of a subsequent press release by NGC which states, in part:em"An NGC grader was surprised to find a rare mint error while evaluating an otherwise routine bulk submission of common date Morgan dollars. The 1896 Morgan dollar features a multiple cracked collar visible at 1 [sic] oclock, 6 oclock and 9 oclock at the edge. It is most prominent from 6 oclock to 9 oclock, where the collar has partially sunk away, leaving a raised edge that is partially devoid of reeding./emem"Broken collar mint errors are the result of the collar, which imparts the edge design (in this case reeding), wearing down during use, cracking, and eventually breaking off. In this case, however, the collar has not fully broken off and instead a piece from 6 oclock to 9 oclock has started to sink away from the rest of the collar./emem"When this coin was struck, the metal stretched to fill the recesses created by the sunken collar, which has caused the reeding on the edge at the collar break to appear elongated. The reeding is obscured at the 18 in the date./emem"Collar breaks are seldom seen, particularly on Morgan dollars. The NGC certification label identifies the location of the collar breaks on this mint error."/em
