The Morgan Silver Dollar was minted in 1878. It was issued for American commercial use, mostly as a trade dollar with the Orient. The dollar was continuously minted until 1904.
Carson City Nevada: A group of silver mine owners had formed a lobbying group, led by Congressman Richard "Silver Dick" Bland, was able to pass legislation that made the U.S. Treasury its biggest customer.
The Comstock Lode, one of the greatest silver strikes in history, was discovered in Nevada in the late 1850s. The strike put downward pressure on silver prices worldwide. In 1878 Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act which required the Treasury Department to purchase large amounts of silver, and to strike it as coins. For reasons of economy, the Treasury chose to strike the silver as dollars (From Wikipedia).
In 1861 Carson City became the capital of the Nevada Territory, and remained the seat of state government when Nevada joined the Union in 1864. The city was founded in 1858 by Abe Curry who later became one of the most influential personalities in the territory, mostly due to the town"s riches derived from silver mining. During the "silver rush", the population of the Nevada mining district numbered in the tens of thousands, where the scarcity of hard money made routine financial transactions difficult. The silver was shipped (over the Sierra Nevada Mountains) to the US branch mint operating in San Francisco, and then back again after being converted to coinage. This practice was very expensive and risky, as the trails were closely patrolled by opportunistic thieves.
Nevada Territory mine owners petitioned Congress for a new branch mint in their vicinity. Legislation to establish a mint in the Nevada Territory was approved on March 3, 1863. Abe Curry lobbied the government to choose Carson City as the site of the new mint. In September 1863, the federal government purchased Block 65 from private citizens in Carson City, for the purpose of constructing the coining facility.
The very first Carson City Mint coin to debut was the 1870-CC Liberty Seated silver dollar.
Government and its impact on the Carson City Mint
In 1834, the US government established the value of silver and gold at a ratio of 16 to 1.
The government specified the weight of silver or gold to be coined into one dollar worth denomination of hard money. Anyone could bring their bullion to the Mint and receive dollars worth of coins in exchange for ounces of bullion. This practice set the price the government was willing to pay per troy ounce of silver and gold (1oz Gold = 16oz Silver = $20).
This worked well until the late 1840s and 1850s, when the supply of gold increased dramatically (during California gold-rush), upsetting the existing gold-silver balance. Consequently, silver became more scarce relative to gold, meaning silver sellers could sell 16 ounces of silver to private buyers(often foreigners), for more than one ounce of gold. As a result, they often preferred to sell their silver this way rather than take it to one of the US mints for conversion into coins.
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