What is the difference between the tailfeathers on a Morgan silver dollar?

Answer 1

The phrase refers to the tail feathers of the eagle shown on the coin's reverse. It's important for 1878 Morgans because that was the first year the coin was minted. Despite the artistic skill of the Mint's workers, their knowledge of eagle anatomy was severely lacking. During the course of 1878 several changes were made to the reverse design until everything was finally corrected. There are at least 4 major varieties:

• 8 feathers: Bald eagles' tails normally have 7 feathers but the earliest image was engraved with 8.
• 7/8 feathers: When the Mint realized the engraver's error, an attempt was made to rework existing dies to show the correct number of feathers. However the old 8-feather tail couldn't be completely eliminated from the image.
• 7 feathers, reverse of 1878: When existing 8-feather dies were used up, the Mint ordered new dies with the correct configuration. However other parts of the eagle, notably its chest and legs, still didn't match reality. These show a bird with a sunken chest and an canted leg, as well as a physically impossible configuration of arrows (unless of course the eagle's claw concealed seriously-bent shafts!).
• 7 feathers, reverse of 1879: The mint adopted new dies for 1879 that corrected the faults of the earlier designs. Some of these dies were used to strike coins at the end of 1878, hence "reverse of 1879".

Answer 2

This is known only on the 1878 Philadelphia issues, some have 7 feathers and some have 8 feathers. Also a variety with 7 struck over 8.