1882-O

The 1882-O, at 6,090,000 pieces, ran a higher New Orleans Morgan Dollar output than the prior 1881-O and continued the southern mint's role in absorbing the Bland-Allison Act silver-dollar production through the early 1880s. The year's specialist collecting profile is anchored by the famous 1882-O O/S over-mintmark variety, where an underlying S mintmark remains visible beneath the O on dies that had been originally prepared for San Francisco and were redirected to New Orleans. The O/S Strong, Medium, and Weak variants are catalogued separately on this site under specific VAM listings, and the standard 1882-O without the over-mintmark anchors the year's entry-grade O-mint pickup.

Strike quality on the standard 1882-O follows the established New Orleans pattern. Liberty's hair above the ear is consistently soft, the eagle's breast feathers show characteristic O-mint weakness, and even Mint State examples rarely show the sharp central detail that defines a true gem strike. Most surviving examples grade VF to MS62 from circulation and broken Treasury bag releases, with PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC populations clustering at MS62 and MS63. MS64 is available and MS65 is condition-scarce, with the strike-related grade ceiling adding meaningful premium at the top tier across the certified pool. The 1882-O is a moderately tough O-mint pickup above MS63 because of the cumulative strike issues.

The 1882-O is a regular common date and a standard New Orleans Morgan acquisition at the mid-grade level. Pricing has held flat for two decades at small premiums above the 1881-O, with the O/S Strong variety adding significant specialist demand on top of the base date pricing. The 1882-O pairs naturally with the 1883-O and 1884-O at the entry-grade level for O-mint date-set collectors, with the standard issue widely available from post-1962 Treasury bag-release inventory at modest premiums. For the New Orleans Mint operating context and the broader O-mint strike-quality pattern, see the Morgan Dollar series history.