GSA Carson City dollars

 

Carson City dollars have long been coveted by collectors for their rarity and allure. When the U.S. Government took us off of the silver standard in the 1960's there was a window in which you could redeem your paper for the silver in the treasury department. Much of this silver was in the form of silver dollars. Eventually the redemption time was up. But the government was then left with a new and interesting problem, it still had silver dollars left in the vaults and to top it off many of those coins were Carson City dollars. Melting the remaining coins would have been a tragedy. Instead the Government Services Administration (GSA for short) was given the task of packaging these coins for sale to the general public. In total there were about 2.9 million Carson City dollars to package and distribute.

The GSA packaged the hoard of dollars in one of two ways, a soft poly-vinyl envelope or a hard cased holder with a black outer box. Since most of the Carson City coins were packaged in the hard plastic case the coin industry quickly started to refer to these hoard dollars as GSA's. With a series of mail bid sales and offerings all of the dollars were distributed to the public.

Many of the Carson City dollars that were once thought rare were now within reach of most collectors. Dates such as the 1885-CC and 1884-CC had been considered rare before the hoard was 'discovered'. Let us look at the 1885-CC for example. This is the lowest mintage Carson City Morgan dollar, but of the 228,000 coins minted 148,485 were found in the GSA hoard. Before the hoard was found an Uncirculated 1885-CC sold for just slightly less than the ever rare 1893-S Morgan dollar. Today it can readily be found in Uncirculated for under $1,000 where as the 1893-S in Uncirculated is $75,000 and up.

The 1884-CC now has an interesting distinguishing fact, it is the most common Carson City Morgan dollar and thus the lowest priced dollar in the Carson City series. Over 1.1 million 1884-CC's were struck, but for years they were considered scarce and one of the keys to the set of Carson City dollars. With the GSA hoard all of that changed. Over 960,000 1884-CC's were in the GSA hoard and all of them Uncirculated. With nearly 85% of the mintage found this date went from being scarce to being the easiest to obtain.

Today Carson City GSA's are highly collectible. In my next article I will address some of the pricing nuances the GSA hoard has created and some of the important facts to know when collecting them. But for now let us just remain thankful that the government helped to preserve these great Carson City dollars for generations to come. 

For more information or to start your GSA collection visit our GSA web page