Once considered the rarest Morgan Dollar in any grade, even more so than the 1893-S or 1889-CC, as few were known to exist until the early 1960’s. Little did the hobby know that large numbers sat undisturbed in the U. S. Treasury, only to emerge during the “Silver Dollar Gold Rush” of 1962-1965. This is a nice original coin in a Paramount Redfield holder. The story of this hoard of coins and it’s promotion would take more space than I can manage here, however it is well worth the reading with a simple web search. The Paramount holders came in two colors, black for “MS-60” coins, and red for “MS-65”, which was as fine as grading got for the most part back in the 1970’s. Unlike many if not most Paramount Red holders, this coin is actually quite close to MS-65 by today’s standards. Oddly enough perhaps, while the 1903-O remains a Semi Key date overall, it is not scarce enough in a Paramount holder to command much of a “Redfield” premium (many Redfield dates have large premiums versus their PCGS/NGC/raw BU values). Either way, a nice BU example of a famous and popular date.