The Morgan dollar coin, minted between 1878 and 1921, features a female Liberty head (facing left) on the front. The model for the figure of Liberty was a Philadelphia schoolteacher named Anna Williams. On the reverse is a wreath partially encircling an eagle with wings outstretched. The eagle originally had eight tail feathers, but this was changed to seven before the end of 1878 at the order of Mint Director Henry Linderman. The initial M for the designer, George T. Morgan (for whom the coin is named), appears on both sides of the coin. This was the first time a designer's initial had appeared on more than one side of a coin. The Morgan dollar was produced at five different mints. These were the mints at Philadelphia, New Orleans, San Francisco, Denver, and Carson City, Nevada. Mintmarks (O, S, D, and CC) appear on the reverse of the coin, below the wreath. Production of the Morgan dollar ceased in 1904 for a period of seventeen years. In 1921, the mints at Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco produced another round of Morgan dollars, but the Morgan design was replaced before the end of 1921 by the Peace dollar. Because Morgan dollars were 90 percent silver, hundreds of millions of them were melted down by the government and private refiners when silver prices rose. Until the 1960s, Morgan dollars attracted little interest from the public. Now, they are some of the most widely collected US coins, with collectors typically aiming to complete a set of 96 date and mint combinations.
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