The Four Oaks Hoard

Foreword

The following 217 lots comprise a hoard of approximately 970 Morgan and Peace Dollars, which were purchased en-bloc in the 1930s. it is not known if they were bought direct from the United States or in the UK. Kept in storage and untouched until the mid 1960s, they were then sold to an antique dealer and again put into storage. The current owner has now decided to sell. Almost all the coins are uncirculated, with varying degrees of the usual bagmarking, some toned, but mostly brilliant. a few of the better examples have been selected for grading. They are listed by mint, then chronologically.

Probably the best known of all US coins, the Morgan Dollar, named after its designer George T. Morgan, was first struck in March 1878. The obverse figure of Liberty facing left and wearing a Liberty cap and wreath was based on the likeness of Miss Anna Willess Williams, a Philadelphia school teacher who sat for Morgan at the home of the famous painter and photographer, Thomas Eakins. These coins were struck in enormous quantities over the next 15 years, thanks mainly to the 1878 Bland-Allison Act which guaranteed a market for US silver-mining companies at prices well above the value of the metal on the world market. The 1890 Sherman Silver Purchase Act made a bad situation worse and an economic crash ensued, the Panic of 1893. In the meantime however an astonishing 420 million coins had been produced, most of which never entered circulation.