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Christmas Dollars
 | By Tom LaMarre, Coins
December 09, 2008 |
Silver dollars did not circulate much outside of the Western states, but they made popular Christmas gifts across the nation long after production stopped. Although you can't get them for face value anymore, the prices for many dates are modest.
Hundreds of millions of silver dollars were still in government vaults when the Mint stopped striking them in 1935. Years later, the stockpile came in handy at Christmas time. Holiday demand for the coins soared in the 1950s and 1960s.
In December 1953, an attorney handed out silver dollars at a Junior Optimist Club Christmas party in Mansfield, Ohio. A year later, newspapers reported the Philadelphia Mint had "inadvertently" released 3 million Morgan dollars valued at $2 to $17 each.
According to one article, scores of rare silver dollars from the Mint's release turned up at Christmas parties held by two Des Moines firms. The National Bank in Lima, Ohio, reportedly ordered 100 "new" silver dollars for Christmas.
The situation was different in 1955. Silver dollars were rare on Wall Street. However, a store in Lima gave customers a cash refund of five silver dollars with every $50 purchase, or 10 silver dollars with every $100 purchase.
In December 1956, the Electron Corp. of Littleton, Colo., gave 50 employees 3 miles of silver dollars as a Christmas bonus. The coins were from the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City.
In 1957, at a "Christmas in July" event in Bennington, Vt., one of the prizes was "all the silver dollars you can shovel in two minutes." In November 1957, purchasers of Salada tea could sent in six box panels with a coupon and receive a free silver dollar.
For many banks, it was good business to have a supply of silver dollars at Christmas time. "We'll exchange silver dollars for paper money," a bank in Clearfield, Pa., said in a December 1958 newspaper ad. "We'll furnish a gift envelope with each coin. You can't beat a real, old-fashioned silver dollar as a Christmas gift."
The B.W. Food Store in Greene, Iowa, had a different idea. In December 1959, it had drawings each weekday for 10 silver dollars each. On Saturdays, there were two drawings of 10 silver dollars each. No purchase was necessary to register.
Here's something really different, a case where the owner of a business received silver dollar gifts instead of giving them away. In December 1961, the owner of a bar in Long Beach, Calif., let customers punch silver dollars into the log walls. Bar patrons were happy to go along with the idea, to the point the owner said he was running out of wall space.
The biggest Christmas release of silver dollars happened in 1962. In November, Mint Director Eva Adams said the Mint had already been sending silver dollars to Federal Reserve banks across the nation in preparation for Christmas. In December, however, Adams said, "Our cupboard is bare."
The Treasury release caused a crash in silver dollar prices, especially when it came to dates previously considered rare or scarce, like the 1903-O, 1904-O and 1898-O. Today, most mint state examples of the dates are from the government's Christmas release. The 1903-O is still scarce, and its value has rebounded somewhat. But you can buy a mint-state 1904-O for less than $40, something that would have been impossible before the 1962 release.
The distribution of silver dollars at face value ended in 1964. In December, newspapers reported that gifts of silver dollars had been suspended. However, the men's department of a Long Beach, Calif., store did offer a lucky, never-go-broke silver dollar key chain, made with "a real silver dollar."
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