1894-S Morgan Dollar
Semi-keyA low-mintage San Francisco issue that is generally better struck than the Philadelphia and New Orleans coins of this year.
Mintage
- Business strikes
- 1,260,000
- Mint
- San Francisco (S)
- Mintage rank
- 24 of 96
Rank 1 is the lowest business-strike mintage in the series. Mintage is what the Mint produced, not what survives: some 270 million silver dollars were melted under the Pittman Act of 1918 without the dates being recorded, and several issues sat in Treasury vaults for decades before release.
Reading the figure
Among the 28 San Francisco issues in the series it is the 8th smallest. Of the 3,093,000 struck across all mints in 1894, this issue accounts for 41%. That is 11 times the Philadelphia figure for the same year. The 1894 split ran New Orleans 1,723,000, San Francisco 1,260,000 and Philadelphia 110,000. The series median is 5,000,000, so fewer than half as many of these were struck as a typical date. Series-wide output rose sharply that year: 3,093,000 against 1,455,000 in 1893. 1894 was the 3rd smallest production year of the 28 in the series. In 1894 the coin was struck at Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Francisco; Carson City struck none.
Every sentence above is computed from the mintage table on this page, not asserted separately.
Scarcity tier
Semi-key
Assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 is a key date, under 2,500,000 is a semi-key.
This is a reproducible label derived from the mintage column, not a market valuation and not a Coin Curator price opinion. The same thresholds apply to every series on this site. Several dates are far harder or far easier to obtain than their mintage implies; where that is true, it is stated above.
What to check before buying
Nothing about this date calls for a check beyond the ones that apply to any certified coin.
And for any certified coin
Verify the certification number on the grading service’s own lookup rather than from a photograph of the label, match the listing images to the certification record including grade and any variety attribution, look for cleaning, compare the mintmark against published photographs of the genuine issue, and read the return policy before buying. The grading guide covers each of these in full.
Coin Curator does not grade, authenticate, or appraise coins, and publishes no price or population data. These are verification steps, not a valuation.
Verify a certification number
Look a 1894-Scertification number up on the service’s own site. A photograph of a label proves nothing.
Each service publishes its own guarantee with conditions and exclusions. Compare PCGS, NGC and ANACS.
Find a 1894-S for sale
Opens an eBay search for this exact date and mint. Coin Curator does not list inventory, hold stock, or quote prices; verify each listing, seller, and return policy directly.
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Common questions
How many 1894-S Morgan dollars were minted?
The San Francisco Mint struck 1,260,000 1894-S Morgan dollars for circulation. That is the 24th lowest business-strike mintage of the 96 date and mintmark combinations in the series.
Is the 1894-S Morgan dollar a key date?
Coin Curator labels it a semi-key, assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 struck is a key date and under 2,500,000 is a semi-key. The same thresholds are used for every series on this site, so the tiers are comparable between them. That label describes production, not market value or how hard the coin is to find today. A low-mintage San Francisco issue that is generally better struck than the Philadelphia and New Orleans coins of this year.
What should I check before buying an 1894-S Morgan dollar?
Verify the certification number on the grading service's own lookup page, match the listing photographs to the certification record, check for cleaning, and compare the mintmark shape and position against published photographs of the genuine issue.
Related dates
Guides for this coin
All guides →Morgan Dollar Key Dates and Varieties
The 1893-S, 1895 Proof-only, 1889-CC, and important VAM varieties show why date, mint, attribution, and condition must be researched together.
1 min readVintage GuideCarson City Mint: Why CC Coins Command Premiums
Carson City Mint operated 1870-1885 + 1889-1893. Coins from the silver mined down the road. Low mintages, frontier-era history, and the iconic CC mint mark, the most romantic coins in US numismatics.
2 min readBuying GuideMS-63 vs MS-65 vs MS-67: Which Grade to Actually Buy
Adjacent grades can carry very different market evidence. Learn how to compare surfaces, eye appeal, population data, and current records before choosing a grade.
1 min readEducationPCGS vs NGC vs ANACS: Which Grading Service for Coins?
Compare PCGS, NGC, and ANACS by current service terms, holder and guarantee limitations, verification tools, and the needs of the particular coin.
1 min readMintage sources
Mintage figures are U.S. Mint production records, cross-checked against the published tables below on 2026-07-31. Where those tables disagree, the disagreement is disclosed on the affected page rather than resolved silently.
- Wikipedia, "Morgan dollar" mintage figures table — Cites Yeoman (A Guide Book of United States Coins) and Van Allen & Mallis.
- CoinMintages.com, Morgan dollar mintages — Lists business strikes and proofs separately, including the 1878 tail-feather varieties.
- GovMint, Morgan silver dollar mintage chart — Published as sourced from U.S. Mint records.
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