They were generally known as Morgan Silver Dollars, lovingly referred to as Carson City Cartwheels (because of their CC mintmarks) and eventually were marketed by The General Services Administration as “The Coins Jesse James Never Got!” And what excitement the announcement of that sale caused among investor/collectors back in 1972. “Here Come The Cartwheels” read a teaser on the cover of the August 1972 issue of COINage magazine. “Biggest Silver Dollar  Sale in History” it continued “By Mail To You.”

It was unbelievable but true. The government was actually auctioning off, to eager investor/collectors everywhere, millions of high-grade cartwheels neither Jesse James - nor his brother, Frank James - or for that matter any of the other numerous bank-robbing outlaws of the time - ever got (like Cole Younger, to name but one).

The coins in question were part of the General Services Administration hoard of excess silver dollars stored for almost a century in government vaults since their original minting dates back in the 19th century. And what a sale it was! It ran from June 1, 1973 to July 31, 1973 and was the second in a series of GSA disposal sales of nearly 3 million silver dollars, minted largely from silver ore mined at the famous Comstock Lode in Nevada at the Carson City Mint. For reasons unknown somehow these mint condition coins never made it into circulation.

The first sale, “The Great Silver Sale” was held from October 31, 1972 to Jan. 31, 1973. Other sales followed from 1974 on, wrapping up with “The Last of the Carson City Dollars” running from July 1 to July 31, 1980.

Rules for the first Great Silver Sale bidding appeared in COINage magazine and included the cautionar advice: “…buyers should take special note of the fact that time is of no consequences in this sale. Coins do not go to the first offer - everyone has 90 days to bid.”

“Time does not buy you anything - a higher bid price buys you a coin,” it continued. Many collectors and dealers of the day were concerned that the sudden surge of so many Carson City “cartwheels” into the coin market would affect their value in a negative manner.

In reply, Lance Swan, Silver Dollar sale program director noted that every attempt would be made to insure fair pricing and that those special CC Cartwheels would be specially packaged in handsome cases sealed in plastic to distinguish them from regular CC dollars already in the marketplace.

Other original bidding rules for the first sale included only one coin of each date per bidder and only citizens of the United States were eligible to purchase those uniquely packaged cartwheels.

The “Coins Jesse James Never Got!” offering was divided into nine sales categories, all of which required participants to place bids. Under GSA rules, a bidder could bid on only one coin from each of the nine categories, but no collector could bid on more than nine coins. If the category was sold out, the coins would go to the highest bidders. It was a desirable and unbeatable offer because the government hoard included lots of rarities, with a high percentage of certain relatively low mintage CC dates from 1880-1885 included in the sale.

Those coins with the largest percentages of their mintages still existing, were the least popular with bidders. For instance, of the roughly 521,000 1884-CC dollars offered,  just 51,500 bids were received. The minimum bid on these was $30.

This is an amazingly low bid figure considering that in 1972 those very same uncirculated CC silver dollar dated 1880, 1881 and 1885 were valued at around $70, while the 1882s, 1883s and 1884s were listed at around $35-$40.

By the conclusion of the Jesse James sale, the GSA had received 1 million bids for 453,000 coins, leaving a little over 1.7 million silver dollars to be disposed of.

The issue of the remaining coins lay dormant for a number of years until it was again brought before the U.S. Congress in early 1977. Finally, in March of 1979, legislation was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter authorizing the GSA to sell the remaining Carson City silver dollars still in its possession.

In July, 1979, the GSA announced preliminary plans to offer the nearly one million remaining Carson City silver dollars in another round of mail-bid sales set to begin in early 1980. Along with this announcement, the GSA commented that over 25,000 requests for information had already been received from interested parties.

All indications were the interest in the upcoming mail-bid sale would be unlike that of any other to date. Amazingly, despite what it called indications of strong bidder interest, the GSA set the minimum number of coins per bidder at 500!!

On January 2, slightly more than a month before the announced sale date of February 8, 1980, GSA Commissioner Ray Markon retracted pre-announced bid prices “ due to volatility in the silver market”.

On February 21, thirteen days after the commencement of the bidding process, the GSA announced it was going to change the minimum number of coins allowed per bidder - only 35 coins per customer, not 500 per customer as originally advertised.

Many bidders ended up with no coins at all and complaints poured into local and national newspapers, industry-related magazines and periodicals, and most into the U.S. Congress at this disappointing turn of events. Even before the final sale in July of 1980 disposed of the remaining Carson City silver dollars in the GSA’s possession, hearings before the U.S. Congress  were already being planned in Washington.

Many dealers apparently thought the coins in their original GSA holders and boxes were too bulky to carry around or to display at their shops. In addition, so many of the coins were entering the marketplace they carried no noticeable premium in their original GSA holders at the time.

And so it came to pass that those Coins that Jesse James Never Got were soon being “cracked out” of their GSA holders. One dealer said that he saw trash bins filled with discarded GSA cases at coin show  after coin show.

However, with the introduction of third party grading and encapsulation services in the mid-1980s, GSA CC silver dollars in original holders have recently gained remarkably in popularity and both dealers and investor collectors now realize those historic cartwheels are worth more in their original GSA holders.

Because, as with any collectible, a diminished supply combined with increased demand means greater value.

Jesse James’s loss has definitely become an investor/collector's gain. Jesse James might not have gotten his hands on them, but this time around astute investor/collectors will seek them out and keep them in their original GSA holders for both fun and profit and, of course, for historic accuracy.