New retired guy with a question already🤡

ArmantheDobe

Howdy folks,
Retired guy with time to follow an old interest, so howdy and hope someone takes pity on my ignorance. I bought this 1882-S and upon receipt, I find what I think is an old PCGS holder with a hologram on the reverse side, a nice looking Morgan, and a description on the obverse reading: Morgan Silver Dollar The American Classic Brilliant Uncirculated. No numbers or grade showing anywhere. The plastic holder has PCGS on the lower right corner embossed into the plastic from the die.
Any ideas would be appreciated. I do wonder if someone covered up the grade and serial number with a sticker describing the coin?
The Morgan looks quite nice.
Thanks for any and all suggestions or comments.
Kerry

Goldbully

A posthumous welcome from @Russ

Walkerfan

Welcome, Kerry!

I will defer to the slab experts but will hasten to add that I’ve never seen one like this before.

My guess would be that it’s genuine and that PCGS ‘soft’ graded it. Calling it uncirculated but not giving it a numerical grade.

Aspie_Rocco

Looks legit to me.
There are many instances of coins with labels like this. It is like a bulk encapsulation deal for some dealers or companies at times, for promotions.

MsMorrisine

some dealer asked for a generic label

they've done it since

having pcgs in the plastic actually means nothing, as does the holo. my best anti-counterfeiting advice is to know your coin. it's genuine and the obverse has great details.

ArmantheDobe

I bought this from Fairview Coins just because it looked good in the eBay pictures, before I figured that I should pay as much attention to the holder as the coins.
The pic was cropped enough that I never thought about the numbers. I just assumed someone had stickered over them for some unknown reason. Spending $80 on a nice looking Morgan isn’t going to hurt my wallet, but I wasn’t looking to send this in for a new capsule and a regrade. Oops. Lessons I learn the hard way.

jonathanb

I see several examples of this holder online, including for example at Great Collections: https://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/141097/1904-O-Morgan-Silver-Dollar-PCGS-Brilliant-Uncirculated

So it seems to be genuine, although with little or no premium over an unslabbed example

Crypto

I bet it was a promo or something for a major show or ANA class. Maybe a telemarking or giveaway thing

MS61 bulk commercial UNC from early 2010 ish

ArmantheDobe

Jonathanb,
Thanks for the link. Looks like the bidder paid $49 for his in 2013. Inflation hurts🤑

pcgsregistrycollector

Welcome to the forum Kerry! I believe your coin is genuine, as I have seen examples like it.

Rc5280

According to the "holder museum", it looks like a Gen 4.3, or Gen 4.4...

https://www.pcgs.com/holdermuseum

DisneyFan

Coins with a grade between 60 and 70 are considered Brilliant Uncirculated or BU. In checking the PCGS Price Guide the value of your 1882-S starts at $75 and goes up from there.

Keep it "as is" as it is an interesting PCGS label.

jonathanb

@DisneyFan said:
Coins with a grade between 60 and 70 are considered Brilliant Uncirculated or BU. In checking the PCGS Price Guide the value of your 1882-S starts at $75 and goes up from there.

That's not accurate. The PCGS price guide only applies to coins that are slabbed by PCGS with the corresponding numeric grade. That example is slabbed, but not with a numeric grade. So the price guide does not apply.

It would cost at least $25 (and probably a lot more than that considering everything) to get that coin into a numeric holder. I expect the $49 sale price for the other example is more accurate than the PCGS price guide.

DisneyFan

@jonathanb said:

@DisneyFan said:
Coins with a grade between 60 and 70 are considered Brilliant Uncirculated or BU. In checking the PCGS Price Guide the value of your 1882-S starts at $75 and goes up from there.

That's not accurate. The PCGS price guide only applies to coins that are slabbed by PCGS with the corresponding numeric grade. That example is slabbed, but not with a numeric grade. So the price guide does not apply.

It would cost at least $25 (and probably a lot more than that considering everything) to get that coin into a numeric holder. I expect the $49 sale price for the other example is more accurate than the PCGS price guide.

The coin was graded by PCGS as BU, 60 is the minimum BU grade and $75 is the Price Guide value for a MS60.

As we both know, a price guide is just a guide and we all love buying coins under price guide whenever possible. In the case of your GC example from 2013, even back then there was not strong interest in a PCGS coin graded BU as there was only one bidder.

The original poster already has stated "Spending $80 on a nice looking Morgan isn’t going to hurt my wallet, but I wasn’t looking to send this in for a new capsule and a regrade. Oops. Lessons I learn the hard way." He came to the right place to earn more about coins.

Cranium_Basher73

pursuitofliberty

Welcome to fold Kerry, and kudo's for reaching out, asking and sharing.

You know, if the worst mistake you ever make in Numismatics is buying what appears to be a relatively attractive, genuine and Uncirculated Morgan Dollar, in a genuine PCGS holder, for less than $100., AND you didn't pay more than what is probably a 40% premium in today's market ...

... well then, you might win an award for the cheapest cost of tuition, ever!

Seriously, keep asking question, showing and sharing what you are doing ... and most importantly, keep paying attention to the details!!

Catbert

Amen Pursuit! Welcome Kerry!

ArmantheDobe

Thanks to everyone for the welcome and the interesting info!
The history of these coins provides a lot of info to digest. Much fun🥳

291fifth

It is an authentic Morgan in a PCGS holder designed for marketing to the general public. It may grade as high as MS 63 but probably isn't worth the cost of having it slabbed with a numerical grade. It is better than a raw coin because it is authenticated by a major Third Party Grader (PCGS).

Coins3675

It is a PCGS graded Morgan that was graded as BU (probably for a telemarketing company) instead of a numerical grade assigned to it. I assume it is cheaper to grade them that way.

seatedlib3991

What is old is new. Two days ago, while i was making my breakfast, a shouty guy was on my TV claiming to have fould a secret hoard of Morgan dollars and was selling them in a similar holder. james

airplanenut

A lot of good replies already, but since I'm not sure I saw this tidbit, I'll throw it in there. There are two ways bulk submissions can logically end up like this. First is to have every coin graded Brilliant Unc and be done with it. Second is to have every coin graded, but coins that grade X or higher get numeric grades and coins that grade lower are Brilliant Unc. From a marketing standpoint, this makes sense because the higher grades can be sold based on their number, and the lower grades can be sold with generic descriptions that sound good (who doesn't like a flashy, lustrous, brilliant uncirculated coin?).

So with that said, my guess is that the cutoff is around MS63, meaning coins grading MS63 and above are likely to be in holders with specific grades, and the "brilliant uncs" are likely to be MS60-MS62 (though with MS60 being such an unusual grade, MS61-MS62 is more likely). Those two grades don't usually see much spread in pricing--at least not for common dates--so the exact grade isn't going to matter too much when setting this coin's value.

Walkerfan

I would like to clarify..I’ve seen NGC slabs like this, before, but not this particular PCGS slab. After doing some quick research, I have found a few similar if not identical examples. This is definitely genuine. BU Coins like this were graded in bulk. They are considered lower grade probably in the MS 60 to 62 range.

jesbroken

Welcome to the forum. Coin looks legit to me. Very nice reverse
Once upon a time, I read that some large sellers did not wish to have a grade on the label as it held the coin to a certain price range and that they felt buyers would make their own judgement and would more than likely grade it higher. Perhaps these sellers get a lower rate for none graded coins. Not sure about that.
Jim