Legendary Gem 1886-O Dollar
The Famous Eliasberg Coin

1886-O $1 MS65 PCGS. As written for this coin's catalog description for the April 1997 edition of the auction of the Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. Collection: "The 1886-O dollar is a very curious issue, inasmuch as the mintage is especially generous, worn coins are plentiful, but the high-grade Mint State coins are rarities. When seen in Mint State, the 1886-O is apt to be in lower ranges such as MS-60 to MS-62. Coins at the MS-64 level are indeed rare."
This is a point that deserves further attention. A handful of other Morgan dollar issues, among them the 1884-S and 1895-O, exhibit the same duality of relatively available circulated coins and nearly inaccessible Mint State pieces. What do these issues have in common? Certainly not mintage; the coins in this group range from the 1895-O, with less than half a million pieces, to the 1886-O, which has a mintage of over 10.7 million coins. What they do have in common, however, is a substantial presence in the XF to AU designations, which indicate that those coins which were released circulated only briefly prior to their recovery from circulation; this is also indicative, however, of a lack of savings in Mint State. A contributing factor and corollary is that virtually all of the Morgan dollar issues that are condition rarities in Mint State are branch issues; only the 1901 is an exception to this trend.
Another common factor is a lack of representation in the game-changing Treasury releases of the 1960s. A Paul M. Green article printed in the April 15, 2008 edition of Numismatic News includes several insightful comments about the 1886-O Morgan dollar, among them: "It's pretty hard to lose 10 million silver dollars, but Bowers and others have tried to trace the release of every Morgan dollar but the 1886-O is barely evident in the reports, with just a small trickle of examples being reported as opposed to the usual bags and that continues all the way through the Treasury release of the 1960s."
The most easily reached conclusion is that government melting of silver dollars proved particularly disastrous for several issues, which would become the prominent condition rarities of today. The Paul Green article supports this, continuing:

"There is really only one conclusion to explain why the 1886-O is really a very ordinary date in circulated grades and but [sic] suddenly in higher grades it becomes nearly impossible. Actually there are two factors in that the small supply of Mint State 1886-O dollars we can study shows the 1886-O was not very well made with particularly poor luster. The number reaching high grades is very small, but the real problem is that there are basically no supplies to allow for cherrypicking.
The 1886-O, it has to be concluded, was a Pittman Act victim and in extremely large numbers. Had it been any other way, the 1886-O would be found in much higher numbers at least in lower Mint State grades. As it is, despite a significantly larger mintage, the 1886-O is in the same class as the 1895-O when you get to MS-65 or better."

Green's comments on aesthetics link into the other prime challenge affecting the would-be 1886-O Morgan dollar owner: that of appearance. Detractors of this issue's overall eye appeal include Wayne Miller, who wrote in his The Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook that "The typical 1886-O is heavily bagmarked, with indifferent luster. ... Because of heavy surface abrasions present on most specimens, gems are rare." Q. David Bowers is also on record in several of his references, such as his Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia, as a non-enthusiast. From that work: "In 1886 the New Orleans Mint struck silver dollars exclusively. Even though the coiners had single-mindedness of purpose, they did a sloppy job, spaced the dies too far apart, and turned out millions of poorly struck coins."
Even amid all of this doom-and-gloom, a handful of bright spots appear, coins that were saved long ago and have re-emerged as numismatic treasures. Judging by the description of the coin for the Eliasberg sale, its cataloger left no ounce of enthusiasm unspent: "Apart from the elusive nature of the 1886-O in higher numerical Mint State levels, the aspect of quality rears its head. Among Mint State coins of this issue, very few have much if any aesthetic appeal. The present coin is an exception to this general rule ... It is, indeed, a remarkable coin."
The present cataloger concurs wholeheartedly. While the strike at the uppermost points shows trifling softness, the visual appeal is comprehensive, of uniformly high quality. Generally pale silver-gray surfaces show subtle pink overtones and the occasional whisper of gold close to the rims. Surfaces are smooth and delightful. For the reflectivity category, this is one of just three MS65 examples certified by PCGS, with none finer at that service (11/08).
Ex: E.S. Norris Collection; S.H. and H. Chapman, May 17, 1894; J.M. Clapp; John H. Clapp; Clapp Estate, 1942; Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr.; Eliasberg Collection (Bowers and Merena, 4/97), lot 2273.
From The Arno Collection.
See: Video Lot Description(Registry values: P8, N7079) (#7168)

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