1880-CC Morgan Dollar BU (GSA)

Until 1964, U.S. citizens could redeem Silver certificates for Silver dollars at a U.S. Treasury mint on demand. In 1962, an individual redeemed a Silver certificate and received a rare and valuable Morgan Silver dollar. This incident triggered a huge interest in Silver dollars resulting in millions of Morgan Silver dollars and Peace Silver dollars being sold to the general public. Lines formed outside of the Treasury Building in Washington D.C. for the exchange, and some people brought buckets and even wheelbarrows to haul their Silver dollars home.

The U.S. Treasury discovered previously unknown mint bags of Carson City Morgan Silver dollars in its vaults estimated around 2.8 million Silver dollars in total. The Morgan Silver dollar was largely produced due to the European flooding of the market with Silver coupled with the huge Silver resources in the Nevada Territory, such as the Comstock Lode, placing enormous pressure on Silver prices. In order to prop U.S. Silver prices, Silver miners convinced the U.S. government to purchase their Silver and manufacture it into Silver dollars. Due to their large size, many Americans did not wish to carry these Silver dollars which forced the government to store millions of these coins in government vaults.

These coins had been forgotten since they were thought to have been melted due to the Pittman Act of 1918. The Pittman Act of 1918 had 270,232,722 Morgan Silver dollars melted and converted into Silver bullion with 259,121,554 being sold to Great Britain and 11,111,168 for subsidiary Silver coinage. The Treasury officials held back these newly found Carson City Morgan Silver dollars, often referred to as the Government Services Administration Hoard, due to their low mintages and rarity.

On December 31, 1970, legislation passed to sell the Carson City Silver dollars through the Government Services Administration via a mail bid sale. Each uncirculated Silver coin was sorted and mounted in a small plastic display case. Each coin came with a certificate of authenticity with an eight digit serial number that started with the last two numbers of the date of the coin. Circulated Morgan Silver dollars and Peace Silver dollars were sealed in plastic, often referred to as soft packs.

The GSA conducted seven mail bid sales between 1972 and 1980 and sold all the Carson City Morgan Silver dollars from the GSA Hoard. Buyers could bid on individual years by sending in an order form and check. Buyers had to pay up for Silver dollars with lower mintages. Some bids were not deemed high enough, and the government issued checks to reimburse buyers for the amount they had sent in with their order form.

Later, coin dealers who sold the Silver dollars found the plastic GSA holders to be bulky and bothersome when it came to transferring them back and forth to coin shows. So, they removed the Silver dollars out of their GSA holders and sold them individually to collectors. This resulted in the increase of rarity for GSA Holdered Silver dollars. Two of the main grading services, Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) and Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), preserve the integrity of the holders when the coins are submitted to their grading services. PCGS uses a gasket and plastic encapsulation that surrounds the original GSA Holder keeping it protected. NGC uses a ribbon sticker and a holographic sticker that allows the GSA Holder to fit in the original presentation box.