Rare 1893-S Morgan Silver Dollar Sells for $1.18 Million

A rare 1893-S Morgan Silver Dollar, the lowest-mintage business-strike issue of the series, has sold for $1,181,250 at GreatCollections.

The Clapp-Eliasberg specimen, graded PCGS MS-65 and approved by CAC, drew 101 bids in an unreserved auction. The result established a new auction high for an 1893-S graded PCGS MS-65 and came in more than 50% above its then-current $775,000 PCGS Price Guide value. PCGS’s Sept. 4 Price Guide update raised the MS-65 value to $1.2 million.

GreatCollections recorded more than 14,000 page views for the listing, with 433 members tracking the coin. Bidding closed Aug. 9, and the winning bidder, a collector from the Midwest, later took delivery at the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money, held Aug. 25-29 in Pittsburgh.

Scarcity Intensifies in Mint State

Just 100,000 1893-S Morgan dollars were produced at the San Francisco Mint. Most entered circulation, leaving relatively few examples in higher grades. PCGS estimates that 9,948 survive in all conditions, including 123 in Mint State and just 18 at MS-65 or better.

The newly sold coin is one of three PCGS MS-65 examples with CAC approval.

Provenance Dates to 1893

Its ownership history adds another layer of distinction.

Philadelphia dealer J. Colvin Randall acquired the coin in 1893, the same year it was struck. It passed to J.M. Clapp in 1894 and remained with the Clapp family until 1942, when Louis E. Eliasberg Sr. acquired the collection.

Eliasberg went on to assemble the only collection widely recognized as containing every U.S. coin by date and mint mark.

The 1893-S was sold with the Eliasberg collection in 1997 and later became part of the Stellar, Sunnywood and Simpson collections. It eventually entered the collection of the Australian collector known as the Wizard of Oz, who assembled a highly ranked Morgan dollar set.

The coin is also the specimen illustrated in Jeff Garrett’s 100 Greatest U.S. Coins.

Price Nearly Doubles 2020 MS-65 Sale

The $1,181,250 result represents a sharp increase from the last public auction appearance of another CAC-approved PCGS MS-65 example, which realized $600,000 in 2020.

The overall auction record for an 1893-S remains substantially higher. GreatCollections sold the Vermeule specimen, graded PCGS MS-67 with CAC approval, for $2,086,875 in 2021, marking the first time a Morgan dollar exceeded $2 million at auction.

The Clapp-Eliasberg example ranks behind the MS-67 Vermeule coin but stands among the finest surviving examples of the key business-strike rarity in the Morgan dollar series.

More information about the auction and other GreatCollections offerings is available at GreatCollections.com.