Collecting Morgans and other silver coins
oumpaa11
Posts: 27 ✭
Where is a good place to start collecting them? Looking for coins that are not too too expensive. What do I need to be able to make sure the coins are real and not fake? Good places to buy them from that are less chances to sell fakes or over priced garbage?
Andrew
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Comments
You might want to browse the Buy, Sell, & Trade forum right here.
Sometimes I think that animals are smarter than humans, animals would never allow the dumbest one to lead the pack
GC, Heritage, Stacks will not sell you fakes. The big national dealers will not sell you fakes. Where people run into trouble is when they are trying to get a deal...or a steal.
It appears to me the best course of action would be to read, learn and examine a boatload more coins before you buy. Good luck.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Hmmm
This assumes one doesn’t know what they are doing.
Before you start "collecting" Morgans, you might want to decide what you goal is (e.g., date set; full set--date/MM; collect a few because silver dollars are cool; whatever), and see how expensive it would be for you to accomplish that goal. If you can afford that, go for it!
There are a lot of very common dates in most of the more modern silver sets, including Morgan dollars. So you can get a lot of them easily and fairly cheaply. If you have a reputable local brick-and-mortar coin dealer, they almost certainly will have a good selection of Morgans, and many other silver sets.
“GC” is Great Collections. Best advice is as TomB posted.
I made a small kit to test silver just for fun. A magnet slide was the most expensive part. I got a set of loupes a digital scale and a ping tester. I keep a .999 silver and a .925 silver coins in the kit to test the ping tester against.
I'd say start with Morgan's and peace dollars and brance out from there. Do what's fun.
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First, look at a price guide and your budget to figure out what is a reasonable goal for you to collect. "Not too expensive" means different things to different people. Next, seek out a reputable local dealer for guidance if you can. If that's not possible, buy some inexpensive certified coins from sellers like GreatCollections, Heritage, or Stack's. Understand how their auctions work before bidding. Ebay can be a good place to buy, but you need to be careful. There are many good dealers there, but there are a lot of fakes being sold there as well. Researching the sellers on eBay and elsewhere will help. The Buy, Sell & Trade forum (BST) here is also a good place to go for coins being sold. I'd look for stuff for sale rather than posting a "wanted to buy" ad, because a shady seller could contact you without having their offer seen by others looking at the board.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I reduced buying US Classic for most part couple yrs back. Do acquire US Classic (if nice pickup). I see a very bright future for gold and silver bullion coins.
Low pop world slabbed silver coins a super investment buy! Picked up some US CACG coins but they gonna have to pay the money lol.
Website for GC? Or heritage?
https://www.greatcollections.com/
https://coins.ha.com/
I recommend each, highly.
are there any that are not auction sites? Would rather not get into bidding wars
My $0.02?
In addition to learning the common traits of great coins (strike, luster, originality, etc) spend some time finding great and fair dealers, and you’ll begin to find great coins at a fair price. Just a few of the very best:
David Kahn at DKRC
John Agre at Coin Rarities Online
Gerry Fortin at GFRC
Eye Appealing Coins
Paradime Coins
HLRC
There are many more, and many who post here. Will great coins cost more than average coins? Sure. But someday you’ll be happy you developed relationships with great dealers, and you didn’t settle for average, mediocre coins - particularly when you decide to sell. Good luck…
Also check out Northeast Numismatics. They have a ton of Silver coinage. Great people to work with (Tom and Chris).
https://www.northeastcoin.com/
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CBH Set https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/everyman-collections/everyman-half-dollars/everyman-capped-bust-half-dollars-1807-1839/album/345572
It assumes they are not expert. How else would you take the OP's question? He's asking how he can buy without worrying about fakes. He didn't ask where to buy if he's doing his own authentication.
This is kind of tricky because random auctions occasionally blow up. But broadly speaking, if you’re buying fairly common issues, you’ll usually get better prices at auction than you will from retail sellers.
After all, retail sellers often buy inventory at auction, and then they have to mark up some to make money for themselves.
Where can I find videos on strike and luster and stuff like that. Plus the things like a scale and all just to make sure for myself coins are real. Yes I am coming into this not knowing much of anything but would love to learn. Also why I want to stay away from the auction site. At least ebay they have sniping tools you can use but not sure with these other ones.
Also info on what the gradings mean, right now if someone mentions a grading for a coin it has no meaning for me.
You won’t find many cheap coins from those sources. They are for advanced collectors.
I’d look to find a reliable local dealer to satisfy the OP’s interests.
Then you should start by not buying any coins.
Sniping is the least of your worries. It is also not that necessary. Bid what you want to pay and wait to see if you win. The key is being able to know what to pay.
Since you know very little, I wouldn't start with a scale and raw coins. Look at slabbed coins in the auction archives. That can help you learn to grade as well as give you some idea of value.
True. But that is trickier to assess workout knowing where the OP is and what dealers are in his area.
There are a lot of widgets in GC and Heritage weekly auctions. I was leaning more toward avoiding fakes and paying market price.
Go to the ANA's website (money.org) and look through the free videos that are available in the eLearning Academy. There are videos on basics of coin collecting, introduction to grading, and silver dollars specifically. They're also vetted by the ANA and aren't just some self-proclaimed expert's Youtube videos. Those will keep you busy for some time.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
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Hello, I am not going to recommend anyone but will try to throw out some information/websites to possibly help. First some good information/opinions as noted by TomB and messydesk above.
If you have not noticed there is a Resources thread pinned to the top of the US Forum. It won't help with dealers and buying but has some informative links that might be worth reviewing. In the first post.
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1006619/resources-books-links-to-read-on-numismatic-series-errors-and-varieties/p1
Also having an idea of a price is a good idea. Here are 3 links for that below but these are only guides and actual prices will vary. As noted above reviewing auction archives or past auction results can help, or often be better, in addition to price guides. Note: there is the coin dealer newsletter (CDN or greysheet) but it is a pay service.
The pcgs price guide (these values are often full retail and maybe even cac level full retail). PCGS states that they are average dealer asking prices for pcgs graded coins.
https://www.pcgs.com/prices
Numismedia. They say these are fair market value (FMV). This is the home page. At the top select Price Guides collector FMV prices. Slide down and select the one you want. Notice the prices are by grade range (selectable). If you click on a price it will give additional information.
http://www.coinprices.org
Coin World. Similar to above. Select Values and then fill out the 1, 2, 3 form on the left. And again clicking on a price will give additional information.
https://www.coinworld.com
As far as getting started on buying there is the collectors corner website (by collectors universe - pcgs). It is limited in dealers relative to ebay. I think the dealers are pcgs authorized but have not verified all and that does not guarantee anything but helps I believe. Don't forget shipping if included or not. Some of the asking prices can be higher compared to ebay but....
After selecting a category (example Morgan dollars, currently 13,753), then select the Advanced up by the Search. Can sort from this. Don't use the Mint P - Philadelphia as it will not show the available P mint coins due to how they are entered by the user. Keep it at All and this will include the P mint (and all the other mints). Also for any specific listing can click on the dealer name and then there is usually a website link where you can see that dealers website.
https://www.collectorscorner.com/Coins/
Again as stated above by others, review a lot of stuff, compare and understand before buying.
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Semi-Edit : I see you added another question on grading and such that I missed before writing up the above.
The Resources thread has much of this and including the pcgs photograde and online grading videos and more.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_KWVk0XeB9o - Ruby Starr (from 'Go Jim Dandy') Piece Of My Heart
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https://youtube.com/watch?v=D0FPxuQv2ns - Ruby Starr (from 'Go Jim Dandy') Maybe I'm Amazed
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I found some videos on grading and talking about grading Morgans by pggcs , I think they are one of the grading companies. In ANA education section I could not really find much on grading or luster but maybe I was looking in the wrong area or missed them.
Those dealers look good but I think they will all have coins outside of my price range. Think I would stick with coins about 60 to up to 62, Past that I think they would be too expensive to consider.
Heck now that I looked getting adds on facebook for complete Morgans sets for 99 dollars lol. Like those have to be fake.
No offense, but you admittedly know so little that buying off auction sites is the least of your worries. You shouldn't be buying coins at all at this point. Take the advice that I, and others, have suggested; learn a boatload more by looking at coins in person and reading, reading, reading before you lose the money you are so worried about parting with.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Excellent advice but it's not much fun at the start. I'd go to a local coin shop and purchase a few common date coins in TPG (third party graded) holders such as PCGS holders in various grades - say AU58, MS62, MS63, and MS64 - so you'll have something to study while reading up on coins and learning to grade them. For common Morgans, purchasing one each of the grades above would cost about $400 total (about $100 of that is the value of silver).
No offense taken, this is part of me learning. Asking questions. More so it seems even some fakes are being made from pure silver as well making things more complicated to boot. I would look at coins in person but I believe the nearest coin dealer to me is not that close as I am not too far from Fredricksburg Virginia and I do not believe there are any clubs near me either. Unless some show comes near me and if one does I will make sure to go.
I am not worried about parting with money just rather not end up with fakes or paying double what a coin is worth either. Seen some videos warning of dealers who will do that, Sell coins at nearly double what they should be. Because they prey on those who do not have any idea what they are buying and trust anything they are told.
Andrew
Which is why we have suggested reputable sites including reputable auction houses where buyers set the prices.
You say the sites we suggested are too expensive for you. I'm a part time dealer and I buy coins under $100 on those sites that I resell. There are also coins on those sites that sell for full retail or higher. This is why we suggested studying first and worry about buying later.
Yes, there are real silver fakes but generally only of better dates.
Again, you have zero reason to fear fakes at the major auction houses or dealers. Any "bargain" from another source includes a risk that a novice may have a hard time assessing. I saw a collection of silver dollars recently that was almost half fakes. But I'm sure he got a good deal on them.
Is there a coin club or at least a store near you? If not (I have neither) there are tons of good books and sites (many mentioned already).
If you’re talking about collecting MS62 Morgans, then your budget is under $100 and fakes aren’t a big concern at all. I’ve used GC to buy many coins in that range and been very happy. Haven’t used HA, but certainly would.
Your sweet spot is going to be building a relationship with a dealer who handles stuff you’re after. If that’s not an option, don’t be afraid of long time members here on the BST or the auction houses.
What are you looking at in “other silver coins?” There are a lot of certified and pretty 20th century options in your price range.
I will look again later for clubs in my area and the nearest dealer is some distance away. I am near fredricksburg virginia if anyone also wants to look. On money.org when I search clubs it comes up with zero results for me and nearest dealers are like 70 miles away.
What books? I looked on money.org under education and I will look again maybe I am missing something.
If you want US coins, stay with the Red Book.
Saw a youtube video recently of a streamer was send a collection from a viewer from I believe the guys uncle who passed away. 121 Morgans and all bad fakes and from what they said he had them for more then 20+ years and had no clue and no mention where hey came from.
I get it low end ms62 should have be fakes as they want to target the high end coins
Not true. Most fakes are circulated not uncirculated. But there won't be any fakes on the sites we mentioned.
If you can go to a coin show or two...local or national does not matter. Leave the cash and checkbook at home so won't be tempted into buying something you might regret later. If you are interested in Morgans there will be many slabbed ones you can look at and you'll quickly get an idea of what is good luster and what is not. Grading is a bit tougher but you should get an idea of what a coin needs to achieve at least a mid range MS grade. Have fun and welcome to the community!
K
Here are the videos I'd start with. There are a lot, but introductory ones on subjects you're asking about are here
https://www.money.org/videos/general-numismatics/
This has some more specialized ones, including a couple on Morgan dollars.
https://www.money.org/videos/us-coins/
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Watching some of these videos before will go though more and more thank you. Got my copy of the redbook 2025 delivered today
With out having a local shop to goto. It is rather hard for someone new to get into this. Few of the dealers mentioned could not be bothered. Ebay seems full of chinese fakes out of Hong kong. That auction site mentioned seems good but I hate auction sites, Rather not get into bidding and getting the price driving up and up. At least Ebay you can use Esnipe to put in a bid just prior to the auction ending.
It is very easy to get into this, if you're just a little flexible. There have never been so many options to acquire coins.
I buy a lot of coins and never get bid up because I just place my best bid and let it go.
There are also Buy It Now options on many of the auction sites as well as numerous fixed price sites.
What are some of these sites?
Everyone has their favorite. David Lawrence Rare Coins. Northeast Numismatics, L&C. Legend Rare coins.
We've already mentioned GC, Heritage and Stacks.
There are hundreds of good sellers on ebay. Just use common sense: don't buy from low feedback sellers; if it's too good to be true, it probably is.
You can also search this forum for recommendations.
If you find a site you're interested, you could also post it and ask.
You can find some interesting coins in rolls from the bank.
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So I can find Morgans in rolls from the bank? They still have 1 dollar coins?
They have dollar coins. You are unlikely to find Morgans. The CRH in his name stands for "coin roll hunter" so you can consider the source of the suggestion.
I am a big fan of Northeast Numismatics. They are very fair and have a good inventory. They might tale 5-10% off for you if ask "what's your best price".
My suggestion on what year Morgan to buy I would look for the nicest 1879-S, 1885-O, 1881-S. Those are a few of the common dates and will give you the best bang for your buck.
I also highly recommend that you do not purchase and raw coin until you get a handle on what your doing. Even then buying raw coins can be a trap shoot.
Lastly the 3 best grading services would be PCGS, NGC and CAC.
You can also post a coin you are considering buying. You may not like all the responses but if you can look beyond the BS you will find the people here very good and willing to help you out.
It's a great hobby.
Good luck and welcome.
Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
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Don't waste your time trying to get silver dollars from banks. They are few and far between. However, you can hunt half dollars for silver, and sell what silver you get to afford more/better Morgans. Of course, that only works if you have $500 you're willing to invest in the first place.
Young Numismatist • My Toned Coins
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I am also a big fan and customer of Northeast Numismatics. Great website and inventory. Negotiations are always welcome. To the point above, I concur you will NOT find any Morgans from local banks.
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Morgans, no. Silver nickels, dimes, quarters, and halves, yes. It is quite fun and you never lose any money.
God bless all who believe in him. Do unto others what you expect to be done to you. Dubbed a "Committee Secret Agent" by @mr1931S on 7/23/24. Founding member of CU Anti-Troll League since 9/24/24.
I'm not even sure that my bank would buy them back. It seems like they wouldn't buy rolled coins that I brought them in the past. They don't have a counting/sorting machine like the Coinstar.
My Carson City Morgan Registry Set
Some of my banks take rolled coin, and others have a counter. I have never found one that cannot take coins, only a few that don't want to.
God bless all who believe in him. Do unto others what you expect to be done to you. Dubbed a "Committee Secret Agent" by @mr1931S on 7/23/24. Founding member of CU Anti-Troll League since 9/24/24.
Thus thread needs an image of some Morgan's. (scratch on the 1884 is on the album plastic).
Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
Successful BST transactions with: Namvet Justindan Mattniss RWW olah_in_MA
Dantheman984 Toyz4geo SurfinxHI greencopper RWW bigjpst bretsan MWallace logger7