My Morgan Collection Part 14 (1893-1894)

david3142

Now we’re in the meaty part of the Morgan key dates. Everything from here until 1897 is a 4-figure coin in MS except the 1896 Philly. The Panic of 1893 sent the economy into a depression and mintages plummeted. Only the 1893-CC in this group had over 500K made and the two lowest mintages of the series are consecutive in today’s group (the 93-S and 94).

I tried to pick appealing examples for the money here as prices can escalate quickly and I didn’t want too much money to be tied up in marginal improvements for a few coins.

1893 Morgans do come nice and are not especially difficult to locate in the 63-64 range. They are extremely rare to find with color, though. This one doesn’t have much but just enough to give it some uniqueness and added eye appeal. It has excellent luster too.

1893 MS63

1893-CC is the second most valuable Carson City coin after the 89-CC and far more difficult to locate than the 79-CC. This is the toughest year for a PL date set (just ahead of 1895) and I would love to get a mirrored one at some point. The vast majority of the few hundred that exist for this year are from this mint and almost all (and from all facilities) are very low MS. Mine is a mid-grade coin like many of my other key dates.

1893-CC VF30

1893-O Morgans are tough in all grades but like the others here they are expensive enough and desirable enough that they appear regularly in auctions at all grade levels. Finding an original coin with no distractions at a reasonable price is always a challenge, though. This is my only XF40 coin in the entire series.

1893-O XF40 CAC

Alright, the big dog, the 1893-S is the famous key date of the Morgan series. However, it isn’t rare by most standards and just about every major (or even weekly) auction has a few of them. I was very excited to find this one about 7 years ago at the last coin show I attended in person. At the time it was the most expensive coin I had ever bought but I was so excited to have hit the trifecta for a coin purchase. It was a really clean example, it was priced cheap, and I actually think it is undergraded. It is my lowest-graded Morgan at VF25 although I think it is more like a 30.

1893-S VF25

1894 Morgans are under-appreciated. I suspect most collectors wouldn’t even know that the mintage was just 10% more than the 93-S and PCGS estimates fewer survive than the 93-S. Of course, it is far more available in MS grades than its famed neighbor, which probably accounts for the major price difference (even in the circulated grades). These coins are fairly available in the high AU range but it takes patience to find one with good eye appeal.

1894 AU58

As always, please post some Morgans of your own from this range or share your own experience with these key dates!

Happy New Year!

ifthevamzarockin

Some tough coins, thanks for sharing!

Happy New Year!

SeattleSlammer

Very nice and tough group! I agree that 93-S looks too good for the grade…while there may be a relative ton of AG-G-VG examples floating around out there, they do get significantly harder to locate after that. 🌟

gumby1234

Nice

littlebear

Thanks for sharing!

steelielee

like that 93S

ricko

Thanks for another installment of your Morgan collection... Love that CC... Cheers, RickO

coastaljerseyguy

Awesome coins as usual from your collection, thanks for sharing and starting the New Year off with this great post of the key Morgan dates. Since I shared some of my own coins in your earlier posts, thought I'd continue since you welcome folks sharing their collection.

Here are the my 93CC and 93 O in NGC and PCGS slabs. I couldn't break these out of their slabs for my Dansco since I thought they were both under-graded. If I ever sent coins to CAC, these would be 2. I think both are perfectly original. Hard to believe their grades. I bot 2 others raw in Fine that are sitting in the album.

The 93P I bot raw from EBAY 15 years ago. It has muted color, looks like an AU58/MS60 that sat in a folder since it has that greenish/blue tone on the reverse. Looks better in hand.

kaz

Thanks for another excellent writeup and photos of your very choice coins! another bookmarked thread....

WAYNEAS

@david3142
Thanks for continuing your Mogan posts.
Nice pictures with great coins.
Wayne

JRocco

Awesome coins and thanks for your observations and insights.

david3142

@coastaljerseyguy said:
Awesome coins as usual from your collection, thanks for sharing and starting the New Year off with this great post of the key Morgan dates. Since I shared some of my own coins in your earlier posts, thought I'd continue since you welcome folks sharing their collection.

Here are the my 93CC and 93 O in NGC and PCGS slabs. I couldn't break these out of their slabs for my Dansco since I thought they were both under-graded. If I ever sent coins to CAC, these would be 2. I think both are perfectly original. Hard to believe their grades. I bot 2 others raw in Fine that are sitting in the album.

The 93P I bot raw from EBAY 15 years ago. It has muted color, looks like an AU58/MS60 that sat in a folder since it has that greenish/blue tone on the reverse. Looks better in hand.

Thanks for sharing these! I like the old-timey look of that 93 (especially the reverse) and your CC and O look very similar to mine! No 93-S or 94?

Rampage

I love your posts. Keep them up!

7Jaguars

I am usually not too crazy about circulated Morgans but your 1893 CC and S are really pleasant aesthetically and as nice for grade as I have seen - even more attractive than some higher grade coins of the same dates.

david3142

@7Jaguars said:
I am usually not too crazy about circulated Morgans but your 1893 CC and S are really pleasant aesthetically and as nice for grade as I have seen - even more attractive than some higher grade coins of the same dates.

Thanks very much for the kind words. I happen to like the look of the coins from VF on up although finding AU coins that haven’t been seriously messed with can be quite a challenge. That’s one reason I have a lot more VF30 coins than XF-AU55.

coastaljerseyguy

@david3142 said:

@coastaljerseyguy said:
Awesome coins as usual from your collection, thanks for sharing and starting the New Year off with this great post of the key Morgan dates. Since I shared some of my own coins in your earlier posts, thought I'd continue since you welcome folks sharing their collection.

Here are the my 93CC and 93 O in NGC and PCGS slabs. I couldn't break these out of their slabs for my Dansco since I thought they were both under-graded. If I ever sent coins to CAC, these would be 2. I think both are perfectly original. Hard to believe their grades. I bot 2 others raw in Fine that are sitting in the album.

The 93P I bot raw from EBAY 15 years ago. It has muted color, looks like an AU58/MS60 that sat in a folder since it has that greenish/blue tone on the reverse. Looks better in hand.

Thanks for sharing these! I like the old-timey look of that 93 (especially the reverse) and your CC and O look very similar to mine! No 93-S or 94?

Thanks for compliments. I have both, but not worth sharing. Unfortunately the 93 - S, in a PCGS G6 holder, has some graffiti on obv. Seller hid when listed on EBAY. The color is what I was attracted to when I bot and it was in a PCGS holder. It's listed in BST to sell, but may have to send in to PCGS for regrade/refund. Should have been details graded instead of net graded.

My 94 P was bot raw but was a lightly cleaned XF40. My mistake, not great pictures on EBAY, & went for more meat on the coin instead of a nice original VF coin. Need to upgrade someday.

Would you believe my 93CC and 93-O are each 2 grades lower than yours. Must have been a tough day for grading when they passed thru NGC and PCGS. I think they may be candidates for a gold bean as I believe they are a VF30 and VF35/XF40 with nice originality.

david3142

I don’t know how gold beans works within the VF level (e.g. John ignores the AU53 grade) but I would have guessed 25 and 35/40 for those two. 20 and 30 just seems harsh!

asheland

Excellent coins!