1879-S $1 MS(PCGS#7092)

1879-S $1 MS (PCGS#7092)

Spring 2026 Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Lot Description: Uniformly smooth and intensely bright white apart from a halo of lovely rose-russet peripheral iridescence framing the obverse. Both sides are fully struck with even the smallest of details in the design crisp and clear. For a denomination whose large size makes it inherently prone to scrapes and dings, finding a virtually immaculate example such as this is no small feat. Only a precious few submitted for third-party certification will attain the superior grade offered here.<p>The 1879-S Morgan dollar is by no means a rare coin in the strictest sense until you reach the very upper echelons of preservation. Many thousands of Uncirculated 1879-S dollars exist up to and including the Gem level, but further up the numbers thin out significantly. Almost the entire production run of 9,110,000 coins struck at San Francisco were not paid out but rather remained in the Mint's vaults, only gradually being released in quantities beginning in 1942 and, especially, during the early 1960s. Most Mint State examples come from those releases and most often will have bag marks or other abrasions from being moved around from vault to vault during counts in large and very heavy $1,000 face value sacks for the better part of 80 years. Virtually pristine examples become challenging at the MS-67+ level and are exceedingly rare any finer. Ever so close to perfect, the present example in PCGS/CAC MS-68+ is a showcase coin for any numismatist.