Am interested in Morgan dollars now.....but someone said this

psxchelly

I am starting to get interested in Morgan dollars now.... I wanted to know if there was a good book or web site where i can read good "collector" type information on the morgan... also someone told me that it would be a good idea to get GSA CC uncirculated Morgans to start with because prices of nicer slabbed Morgans are sky high...

opinions, comments?

michelle

FlyTooHigh

<< <i>opinions, comments? >>



Michelle: They (Morgans) don't come with warning labels like they ought to.

Good Luck! you have lots of company here collecting those big dollars!


Tony

Dog97

Unless you can judge a coin I sugest to stickwith slabs at first.
Hey that reminds me, I got a 79CC on eBay. Great starter coin!

BillJones

I'd buy a copy of Wayne Miller's Silver Dollar Textbook. As for GSA dollars, I'd stay as far away from them as possible because you are paying for a holder and NOT THE COIN!!! Buy the GSA dollars if you want a piece of history. Buy carefully selected certified NGC and PCGS dollars if you want the best collection you can afford.

Your best buys are carefully selected MS-64 and 63 dollars for most dates unless you are quite wealthy. If you have unlimited funds, then the sky can be the limit.

littlewicher

The #2 set is still for sale.

Dog97

I'll echo what Bill Jones said and add that the Vam book, The Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan & Peace Dollars by Leroy Van Allen & George Mallis is a great book. Not only does it tell most of the die pairings (vams) but has very detailed history and information on the minting process, all the different mintmark and date digit punches used, errors, Proofs, the GSA Sales, Redfield Hoard, just anything you want to know about Morgans and Peace dollars is in it. Kinda pricy, around $75-100 but well worth it. The book is kinda old & new Vams are being found every day but I keep track of them here: vamlink.com

DaveG

As far as books go -

The VAM book has a good grading guide, great information on die pairings, the story of the GSA CC (and other) dollars, etc.

I think Wayne Miller's book is very out of print and may be very hard to get.

I don't recommend Highfill's book.

If you can find it, Bowers' (huge, two volume) Silver Dollar Encyclopedia is, in my opinion, one of the best numismatic books ever. It doesn't have a grading guide, but has a ton of information on the "context" of the coins - history, politics, etc. You might be able to get a set from the numismatic booksellers - I hear they go for $450 or more, these days.

As far as the coins themselves - I like the GSA coins because you know they haven't been "messed with," even though you do have to pay up for them.

As Bill Jones said, your best buys may be slabbed MS-63 and MS-64 coins (unless you mostly buy XF and AU examples, like I did). MS-63s and 64s are readily available and inexpensive, especially compared to MS-65s and higher. Bowers himself suggests that MS-63s are the best combination of price and condition and even goes so far as to imply that collectors should leave the MS-65s for the "investors." (Ooh, ooh, what an insult!)

oreville

psxchelly: You do not sound like you are completely ready to plunge into those Morgan silver dollars just yet. You are asking questions about what form and packaging you should acquire Morgans in.

Quite frankly....I would purchase only common circulated Morgans in a year set ...one of each year to give yourself a chance to learn more about these Morgans by buying books and looking at thousands of slabbed ones at coin shows (in person!)......

In the alternative I would do a type set (perhaps all in MS-64 grade) of one of each mint marked Morgans.......one group in a PCGS slab, another group in a NGC slab etc.
This way you are limiting yourself to a easily controlled set in which you do not get beyond your level of expertise.

Another dynamite way to learn this Morgan series is to build your own grading set of one specific date/mm in for example, PCGS slabs. Go from a EF-45 all the way to as high as you can afford.....certainly an MS-66 in a more common date is doable. Take the set with you to coin shows to learn, update and compare.

But you need to establish how you are going about creating your unique collection of Morgans.

There are countless other subsets of Morgans that are fun to do and I am sure others will fill you in on them.

Warning...most of the GSA silver dollars are now picked over and it is dangerous to collect them without knowing how to grade those Morgans. I know, I am weak in this area myself.

Gilbert

Everyone has essentially pointed out most of what I could say, but I would like to reemphasize that if you intend to go for uncirculated coins, you may want to do a lot of reading first (I am an avid fan of the Van Allen Mallis book, and I do have the Miller testbook and just about all of the VAM specialty books). There are quite a few nuances to Morgan dollar collecting and even though the common dates are cheap by some standards, a complete set or even almost complete set can be quite an expenditure, so gaining as much knowledge as you can beforehand will make you a "happy camper" in the end. The VAM Link website Dog provided is quite informative and I have found a dealer who has some analysis and recommendations on his website as far as "the most bang for the buck" grade-wise. I am not saying to necessarily buy from him, although, I have and have yet to be disappointed (various series) but I believe his analysis to be of merit. The dealer is Steve Estes and just poke around the links

psxchelly

Wow, thanks for all the information... looks like I need to read a few things first.

Its just that I was given these 2 Morgans raw... and they were a lot better than I expected old coins to be (i love those modern proofs)..... Maybe i should go for the commons, slabbed to get used to the grading and such.

michelle

Oh yeah.... I guess buying raw Morgans would be a bad idea because people might have cleaned them??

dbldie55

<< <i>I think Wayne Miller's book is very out of print and may be very hard to get. >>



It shows up on Ebay pretty often. I am sure you can still get it from Wayne. I can check next time I am in his shop.

stman

CAUTION, on collecting gsacc morgans. Be careful as it can be addictive. Unless you don't mind eating top ramon every day.

But on a serious note, know what you are doing and learn as much as you can first.

gsaguy will probably be along and he can help on every aspect of these coins.

Edited to add, if you do go with gsa's start with common dates 82-84 and and learn what they go for first. If you get them at a fair price they are allways in demand.

stman