1887-S

The 1887-S, at 1,771,000 pieces, ran one of the lower San Francisco Morgan Dollar outputs of the late 1880s but stayed above the Semi-Key threshold that defined the 1886-S below it. The figure represents a recovery from the 1886-S 750,000 output and reflects Treasury's modest increase in S-mint silver allocations for the year. The 1887-S carries the standard Reverse of 1879 hub configuration with no major sub-varieties anchoring the year's specialist collecting. The mintage sits between the 1886-S Semi-Key and the 1888-S Semi-Key, anchoring the moderate-mintage middle of the late-1880s S-mint stretch.

Strike quality on the 1887-S is generally sharp on early-die-state examples, with Liberty's hair detail and the eagle's central feathers coming up cleanly on most coins. Most surviving examples grade VF to MS63 from circulation and limited Treasury bag releases, with PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC populations clustering at MS62 and MS63. MS64 examples are available and trade at modest premiums; MS65 is condition-scarce across the certified pool. The 1887-S did not see major Treasury bag releases the way the abundant 1879-1882 S-mint dates did, so the surviving Mint State population is correspondingly thinner than the mintage figure alone would suggest.

The 1887-S is a regular common date by classification but a moderate condition rarity above MS63. Pricing trades flat through MS62 and climbs at MS64 and above. The 1887-S sits in the middle tier of late-1880s S-mint pickups, between the Semi-Key 1886-S below and the more available 1888-S 657,000 figure above. The 1887-S is a reliable mid-grade S-mint Morgan acquisition that pairs naturally with the 1888-S for collectors building a late-1880s S-mint date set. Treasury bag releases of the 1950s and early 1960s anchor the modern certified-pop survival profile for San Francisco Morgan dates, with PCGS and NGC populations reflecting bag-distribution patterns rather than pre-1950 collector preservation. Registry-set collectors target the upper Mint State tier where strike quality and surface preservation become the limiting factors on assigned grades. For the broader S-mint mid-1880s pattern, see the Morgan Dollar series history.