Brilliant Uncirculated 1883-O MS+ New Orleans Mint 1884-O Morgan Silver Dollar !

Pricing & History

Sold for
Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
Sold Date
Source eBay

1883-O & 1884-O Uncirculated New Orleans Mint Brilliant "Cartwheel" Luster* Two (2) Morgan Silver Dollars 90% Silver Dollar over 130 years Old Key Date New Orleans Mint Mark Legal USA Silver Coinage Investments and Collections See HD Scan coin scanned = coin shipped New Orleans was founded in 1718 and was a great commercial hub because it was at the mouth of the Mississippi River and is located on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Therefore it was a commercial strategic location, a large amount of gold passed through the city ports each year from Mexico, it was located near a natural gold deposits in Alabama, New Orleans was the fifth largest city in the country at the time, it processed more foreign trade than any of the other cities in the US and therefore the US government made it a branch mint on March 3 of 1835. There were two other smaller and less known mints of Charlotte Mint and Dahlonega Mint in the south as well. United States President Andrew Jackson had a large influence in the creation of this mint. In 1832, he used his veto power to prevent a rechartering of what was an institution known as the Second Bank of the US. He also used an executive order known as Specie Circular, which required that any land transactions had to be paid in cash. These fiscal policies along with an economic depression was largely responsible for the Panic of 1837, which then created a large need for more minted cash, which was another reason to create a new mint. The two smaller mints struck only gold coins, but since the Philadelphia Mint could not disperse their coins quick enough to the farther reaches of the frontier, New Orleans became the most important branch mint in the nation and so they minted not only gold coins but also silver. The location of the mint itself was on the northeastern part of the French Quarter, which was designed by the in a Greek Revival style with red brick by the architect William Strickland. Strickland also designed the Philadelphia Mint's second building and he was taught by Benjamin Latrobe, the designer of the US Capital building of Washington D.C. Unfortunately, William Strickland did not consider the terrain that this building was going to be constructed on. The land itself is a swampy lowland area with a high water table, which was characterized during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in modern times. The New Orleans coin mint started receiving structural problems and sinking into the soil. The building was later reinforced with iron rods that were put in between floors. Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, a West Point graduate of engineering and Louisiana native, was giving the task to rebuild some of the arches in the ceiling of the basement and install a new masonry flooring to support the building in 1854. Also, the heavy machinery was later converted to newer steam power and a smokestack was built to vent fumes. Ironically, Beauregard would actually become the Confederate General who would, in April of 1861, launch the attack on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina and propel the nation into the Civil War. The New Orleans mint in the Civil War and Confederate Control The first coin minting operations at New Orleans began on March 8 of 1838 from Mexican gold bullion. It is recorded that the first coins ever minted here were just 30 dimes on May 7. They went on to mint everything from silver 3 cent pieces, silver dollars and gold dollars. One notable person who worked for the mint was John Leonard Riddell. He was a refiner and smelter between the years of 1839 and 1848. He had interests in physics, chemistry, geology, medicine and botany. He was also the inventor of binocular microscopes, wrote books called "Monograph of the Silver Dollar", "Good and Bad", "Illustrated with Facsimile Figures" and "The Mint at New Orleans - Processes Pursued of Working the Precious metals - Statistics of Coinage". His books were basically numismatic related writings. Before the American Civil War, the US mint in New Orleans was in operat... read more

Items in the Price Guide are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members’ research needs.

Flag item for content or copyright

If this item contains incorrect or inappropriate information please contact us here to flag it for review.

If you are the originator/copyright holder of this photo/item and would prefer it be excluded from our community, contact us here for removal.