1894-S Morgan Silver Dollar. MS-67 (PCGS). OGH. Offered is a splendid specimen, one of the very finest in existence, of this popular date. Medium reddish-apricot toning is seen on the obverse and reverse with the latter displaying some lighter areas of silver. The peripheries on both sides are enhanced by blushes of iridescent cobalt blue. The Eliasberg-Larry H. Miller specimen of the 1894-S dollar is a gorgeous piece from an artistic viewpoint, and the direct-from-the-mint provenance is incomparable. High numerical grade, superb aesthetic appeal, rarity, and a marvelous provenance: this coin has it all.<p>Although more available in Mint State than the 1894 and 1894-O, the 1894-S is still one of the scarcer, more conditionally challenging issues of its type. Upper end Gems in MS-66 are rare, and they are always in demand. More elusive still are the Superb Gems, of which only two have been graded MS-67 by PCGS: the present example and the Jack Lee I/Jack Lee II specimen. This extremely beautiful 1894-S is a standout highlight among the Morgan dollars in the Miller cabinet.<p>One of the earliest known collectors to embrace mintmarked coinage after publication of Augustus G. Heatons now famous treatise <em>Mint Marks</em> in 1893, John M. Clapp began ordering coins directly from each mint that same year. Clapp wrote to the San Francisco Mint on November 2, 1894, to order one example of each coin of that date. His order was met with the response from Acting Superintendent Robert Barnett, "We have no coinage dimes 1894," although by 1900 the famous collector had managed to obtain two (!) examples of that exceedingly rare issue from other sources. His order for the silver dollar was obviously filled by the San Francisco Mint, however, resulting in the exceptionally well preserved example offered here. From the Larry H. Miller Collection. Earlier ex J. M. Clapp, who acquired the coin directly from the San Francisco Mint in 1894; John H. Clapp; Clapp estate, 1942; Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. ; our (Bowers and Merenas) sale of the Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. Collection, April 1997, lot 2297 From the Larry H. Miller Collection. Earlier ex J. M. Clapp, who acquired the coin directly from the San Francisco Mint in 1894; John H. Clapp; Clapp estate, 1942; Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. ; our (Bowers and Merenas) sale of the Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. Collection, April 1997, lot 2297
