1885-O is among the most popular
New Orleans Mint Morgan silver dollars. The mintage of 9,185,000 pieces was typical of the era, but still well below the 10.7 million struck of the 1886-O and the 11.5 million struck of the 1887-O. The
Bland-Allison Act of 1878 required that the
United States produce significantly more silver dollars than necessary during this time, which resulted in most 1885-O dollars being placed directly into storage.
Demand for these coins did not arrive until five decades later when the nation began to recover from the
Great Depression of the 1930s. By this time, however, millions had been melted as a result of the 1918