I never cared for the Morgan Silver dollar, it usually came with numismatic premiums due to their age (I'm a bullion man, just gimme Ag from the Mendeleev chart). The weight was odd, not an ounce, not half an ounce, an odd number of grams. They wrote one dollar on it when the silver value of course was worth much more. I just avoided it. But recently I serendipitously figured something out about the coin that gave me a new appreciation.
My first post here was about a 1964 Washington quarter, 90% silver. Fellow Steemian yintercept expressed a preference for the standing liberty quarter and the Morgan silver dollar because they didn't have dead presidents on them. As a Libertarian I could appreciate that.
During our conversation I went back to the constitutional definition of the US dollar, "three hundred and seventy-one grains and four sixteenth parts of a grain of pure … silver." What the hell is a grain? It turns out one gram of silver equals 15.43 grains. So, 371 1/4 grains of silver, the constitutional definition of a dollar, equals 24 grams of silver. That is what a dollar is supposed to be according to our founding documents.
And how many grams of silver are in a Morgan silver dollar? 24 grams. Now the weight makes sense! I had a whole new appreciation for the coin and am looking to purchase one for educational purposes. It really puts history in the palm of your hands. I'll be delving into monetary history more and more from now on. Stand by.
