1884-O Morgan Dollar

The 1884-O Morgan Dollar was struck at the New Orleans Mint in 1884 and is part of the Morgan Dollar series.

Specifications

 * Designer: George T. Morgan
 * Obverse Design: Lady Liberty
 * Reverse Design: Eagle holding arrows and olive branch
 * Edge: Reeded
 * Weight: 26.73 grams
 * Diameter: 38.1 millimeters
 * Composition: Silver (90%), Copper (10%)
 * Mintage: Circulation Strikes: est. 9,730,000

Background
The 1884-O has a mintage of over 9 million. Only the Philadelphia Mint would mint more Morgan Dollars that year. There was little interest in Morgan Dollars in 1884 as the glut of silver coinage continued.

Collecting
The 1884-O Morgan Dollar is readily available to MS-65 and rare to MS-68. There is a wide range of quality in strikes for the 1884-O, from flat to full. The typical strike is above average (good detail on the hair of Miss Liberty and breast feathers of the eagle). The luster, too, comes is a wide range of qualities, from dull to lustrous.

Prooflike coins exist for the 1884-O but many with prooflike qualities on one side of the coin only. Many examples show little contrast and are heavily bagmarked.

Historical Background in 1884
On October 18, 1884, the University of Wales, Bangor (UK) is founded. Bangor University is a university based in the city of Bangor in the county of Gwynedd in North Wales.

On November 2, 1884, Timişoara is the first town of Europe with streets illuminated by electric light. Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with a population of 303,708 inhabitants (the third most populous city in the country, as of 2011), and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the western part of Romania.

December 6, 1884, the Washington Monument is completed. The Washington Monument is an obelisk near the west end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first U.S. president, General George Washington. The monument, made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss, is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 51⁄8 inches (169.294 m).