How Much Silver Is in a Morgan Silver Dollar? 2026 Guide
A Morgan silver dollar holds 0.7734 troy ounces of pure silver. The coin weighs 26.73 grams, 90% of that weight is silver, and the arithmetic lands at 24.057 grams of the metal. That number is the same for every Morgan struck from 1878 through 1921, at all five mints, whether the coin came out of a bank bag last week or spent forty years in a cash register.
The other 10% is copper. Pure silver is soft enough to deform in a pocket, so the alloy exists to keep the design readable.
Morgan silver dollar silver content: 0.7734 troy ounces
The calculation is two steps.
Start with the coin's full weight and take 90% of it:
26.73 g × 0.90 = 24.057 g of silver
Then convert grams to the unit silver actually trades in:
24.057 g ÷ 31.1035 = 0.7734 troy oz
That divisor is fixed. A troy ounce is 31.1035 grams, which makes it heavier than the ounce on a kitchen scale, and it is the only ounce that matters when you are pricing metal.
Some references write the figure as 0.77344, carrying two more decimals. Same coin, same silver, rounder or less rounded depending on who published the table.
Morgan silver dollar weight: 26.73 grams on the scale
A struck Morgan dollar weighs 26.73 grams. In the units a US kitchen scale uses, that is a little under an ounce, which trips up people expecting a coin called a dollar to weigh something rounder.
Two other measurements matter when you have the coin in hand:
Diameter runs 38.1 mm, wider than a modern half dollar and noticeably wider than a quarter
The edge is reeded, meaning it carries vertical grooves rather than a smooth face
Those two, together with the weight, are what a scale and a caliper can confirm in under a minute. The design can be copied. Getting all three physical measurements right at once is harder, which is why they are the practical checks rather than a look at the portrait.
How to calculate Morgan silver dollar melt value
Melt value is the silver content times the current silver price. One multiplication:
0.7734 × silver spot price per troy ounce = melt value
Silver traded around $69 per troy ounce in late August 2026. At that reading:
0.7734 × $69 = $53.36 of silver in the coin
That figure moves every session, so treat the arithmetic as the durable part and the price as the input you refresh. Current readings are published by the LBMA.
Melt value describes the metal alone. Condition and certification factor into a coin's price as well, which is why two Morgans holding identical silver can list at different numbers.
How much silver is in a worn Morgan dollar?
Slightly less, and the shortfall is smaller than most people guess.
Circulation wears metal off a coin. A well-circulated Morgan might come in a few tenths of a gram light. Run a 0.3 gram loss through the same math and the silver drops by 0.27 grams, or about 0.0087 troy ounces. Against a starting point of 0.7734, that is roughly 1%.
So a heavily worn Morgan still carries something close to three quarters of a troy ounce of silver. Grading services care a great deal about that wear. The scale barely registers it.
Using weight to verify a genuine Morgan silver dollar
Weight is the first check because counterfeits usually fail it.
The 90% silver and 10% copper alloy has a density near 10.3 grams per cubic centimeter. Base metals substituted for silver are typically lighter, so a fake cut to the correct 38.1 mm diameter and the correct thickness ends up under 26.73 grams. A counterfeiter can match the dimensions or match the weight. Matching both while using cheaper metal means fighting physics.
A second check costs nothing: silver is not magnetic. A Morgan that responds to a magnet is not silver.
Neither test is conclusive on its own. A well-made counterfeit using a correctly dense alloy will pass a scale, and that is the point at which composition testing rather than measurement is what settles it. At Pure we test every item ourselves before it can be listed, and reading the metal's exact composition is part of that check.
How much silver is in a 1921 Morgan silver dollar?
The same 0.7734 troy ounces.
The 1921 issue sits apart from the rest of the series for reasons that have nothing to do with metal. Production had stopped in 1904 and resumed for a single year in 1921, using new dies, which is why 1921 Morgans often look slightly different in relief from earlier dates. Denver struck Morgan dollars only in that year, so a D mint mark on a Morgan places it in 1921.
None of that changes the alloy. A 1921 Morgan and an 1878 Morgan hold identical silver.
Peace dollar silver content, compared to the Morgan
A Peace dollar carries 0.7734 troy ounces of silver too. Same 26.73 gram weight, same 90% fineness, same 38.1 mm diameter.
The Peace dollar replaced the Morgan and ran from 1921 through 1935. Different designer, different portrait, different reverse. Identical metal, because the coinage standard governing both had not changed.
This is why the two are often quoted together when people talk about pre-1965 US silver by weight. For anyone calculating silver content across a mixed group of dollars, they can be counted as one figure.
Morgan silver dollar specifications
Specification | Figure |
|---|---|
Years struck | 1878 to 1904, and 1921 |
Designer | George T. Morgan |
Total weight | 26.73 g |
Composition | 90% silver, 10% copper |
Silver content | 24.057 g |
Silver content (troy) | 0.7734 troy oz |
Diameter | 38.1 mm |
Edge | Reeded |
Mint marks | None (Philadelphia), O, S, CC, and D in 1921 only |
Series-level reference and grading detail for individual dates is published by NGC.
Common questions
How many Morgan dollars make a troy ounce of silver?
About 1.29 of them. Ten Morgan dollars come to 7.73 troy ounces, and it takes 13 to clear 10 troy ounces.
Does a Morgan silver dollar contain any gold?
No. The alloy is silver and copper only. The warm tone an older Morgan sometimes takes on comes from the copper and from surface toning, not from any gold in the mix.
Are Morgan dollars still legal tender?
Yes, at one dollar of face value. Run the melt calculation above and the metal comes to many times that, which is why Morgans stopped circulating as money.
What to check before you buy or sell
Weight, diameter, and a magnet get you most of the way on a coin in hand. Silver content itself never varies, so the only real questions on a Morgan are whether it is genuine and what condition it is in.
You can see current listings on the Morgan dollars page, and if you are selling, how selling on Pure works covers the process end to end.