Morgan Dollar Design

Continued from History of the Morgan Dollar.

The new silver dollars featured a design by George T. Morgan, an English-born immigrant. He had had come to the United States in 1876, at the age of thirty-one, following a request of the Treasury Department. In England, he had studied and worked for the Wyon family, best known for their minting of several American colonial coinage issues. When he came to the United States, he was soon hired as assistant engraver of William Barber and started working on a large number of patterns meant for the new silver dollars. The majority of these are half dollars dated 1877, with a head of Liberty in various forms. The final design is said to have been based on Miss Anna W. Williams, a schoolteacher who lived in Philadelphia. Morgan never confirmed this, and it appears that the design was only loosely based on her.

The obverse of the Morgan Dollar depicts Liberty’s head, facing left. She wears a Phrygian cap, with the word LIBERTY on her hair band. Various agricultural features are seen, including wheat and oak leaves. Above the portrait is E PLURIBUS UNUM, with each word separated by a single dot. To the left are seven stars and another six are to the right. It must be noted that the stars are flat, thus not showing the radial lines usually found on American coinage. The date is below, and the designers initial, “M” for Morgan, is on the truncation of the neck.

The Morgan Dollar reverse features a Bald Eagle with wings outstretched with a small wreath surrounding. A branch and three arrows are within the eagle’s claws. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST is above, and the denomination ONE DOLLAR is below. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds both the wreath and eagle.

The design was slightly modified throughout the years. The first year of issue in 1878 includes in a number of varieties related to the number of tail feathers on the eagle. The first issues have a total of eight tail feathers, but this appeared unnatural and was later altered to seven tail feathers. In the process, a number of dies were altered, creating the 7/8 tail feather or doubled tail feather variety. Although this is a variety, it is often collected as a regular issue and included in most sets. The Morgan Dollars struck in 1921 were made from complete different hubs, and show many small differences on both sides.