Morgan Problem
coinguy89
Posts: 2,151
While looking through my guidebook to Morgan silver dollars, I realized that they are all alot of money in the grades I want. I want mint state, but I don't want cheap mint state. Ive already got 60-65 and all of them have unattractive bag marks(all graded by Anacs and NGC). Ive got a 61 that looks better then my only 65. I paid $20 for the 61 and $150 or the 65. I would really like to collect them and im thinking, would it be smarter to buy Morgans unslabbed, that way they would be alot less expensive, and I could search for attractive pieces? Im not sure though, cause im thinking if there not graded, there gonna get ruined, scratched, nicked, ect. So im in a hole now. Maybe should I buy them raw and then send them in to get graded? Any thoughts? 
Scott Hopkins
-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
My Ebay!
-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
My Ebay!
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Chris
My Collection of Old Holders
Never a slave to one plastic brand will I ever be.
Kyle
42/92
Would you be comfortable with a raw set, not knowing exactly what they would grade? If so, then don't bother sending them in.
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
How about a full set of VF-XF raw, natural surfaced morgans in two Dansco or Intercept Shield albums?
That is what I plan to do next.
Buy the coin and not the holder,take your time and wait for a coin you like the look of.
You can often find 64's that the only reason they are not graded higher is the strike is weak.
First things first. If you have an MS61 that looks as good as your MS65 something is amiss. An MS61 Morgan is a heavily marked up coin; an MS65 has very few marks. So I have to wonder whether you have developed the “eye” to grade these yet. Given that you are just starting out in the series I do not recommend buying raw coins and then paying to have them graded unless you see the grading fees as “tuition” to the PCGS school of grading. But if you get poor grades back, not to mention body bags (and yes there are a ton of raw Morgans that have been messed with) you will be stuck with a coin that you may have paid too much for and cannot resell. So it could turn out to be an expensive exercise. Just look how many posts there are here from people who get their grades back from PCGS or NGC and feel that they have been slammed–body bags and low grades. It may be more economical to buy coins that have already been graded by one of the top tier services.
Also, when I go to shows and look at coins, I find that the raw coins are almost always of much poorer quality than the slabbed coins. And I see too many raw coins that have been messed with–improperly dipped, thumbed, AT, etc. Frankly, I generally do not waste my time looking at the raw coins at shows any more.
Many Morgans are very affordable and popular to collect in the MS63-64 range, but you need to be picky especially with MS63 coins and only buy ones that are at the high end–and there are plenty around. I would recommend pooling your money and sticking to MS64 or better whenever possible. In fact I would suggest buying a few 64's first, and then look for 63s that look like they just missed the 64 grade.
Remember, Morgans are common. Go to a show and you will see cases full of them. Don’t be afraid to pass on a coin, you will find another. And you are better off buying a few nice coins than a lot of lower grade marked up ones. Later when you have more disposable income, you will not be happy with the lower grade ones and you will have a hard time reselling them.
I would avoid coins graded less than MS63 unless you have graduated to the really tough dates–but you are not there yet. I assume that at this point you are looking at the common dates first. Common date Morgans in the graded less than MS63 will not be easy to resell. Again, you would be much better off sticking to MS64.
CG
Edited to Add: Unilike the dimes you have started collecting, almost all Morgans have some bag marks. Even the nice MS64s will have marks that are clearly visible to the nake eye. So you need to consider whether this is the right series for you.
DON'T DO THIS! You will only end up with a bunch of coins which will be body-bagged when you go to have them graded.
-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
My Ebay!
Go BIG or GO HOME. ©Bill
The key is knowing what you can afford and what to target. As you progress in life and have a few more coin dollars, you can move up in either grade or rarity. Good luck!
Oh, I also agree with everyone one else, dont spend your money on grading fees until you have a lot more experience. One of the big traps for new collectors is thinking that you can cherrypick Morgans and make a bundle sending in raw coins. Often it goes the other way.. dramatically.
Sell the 8 or 9 Morgans that you dont like; keep the 2 or 3 that you do like, and use the money from the sale to buy a couple of nice 64's or common date 65's. And I agree with others to start a shorter set than the full Morgan set. That's what I did by starting with the Walking Liberty half short set (1941-47), completing that set, and now working on the late date set (33-47). Once you do the above, you will have the beginnings of a nice set. Good luck.
Steve
Check out my website (link below) and you will see a collection that is mostly uncirculated, but with a mix of more affordable circulated grades that I hope to one day upgrade as I have the money.
Good luck.
<< <i>Why not just try and put together a nice set of original XF-AU Morgans? There is just too much emphasis on the higher grades these days. If you know you can't afford the MS coins then why bother with them. You will just be frustrated when you get to the expensive ones.
>>
These are wise words, but there are a few very affordable Morgans in uncirculated grades.
If you do, the grades will vary so much it'll look funny with the commons in MS65 and the better dates in AU & the keys in VF and will just look like a hodgepodge of whatever you could find.
My advice is to collect what makes you happy. If its a hodgepodge, and you're happy with it, good for you. I collect Morgans also and I'm going for MS commons and we'll see what happens down the line. I'm going for a MS date set first. Along the way, I purchase other dates in better condition I may already have. I have slabbed & raw Morgnas, many have been cracked out. I've got plenty of time to wait for the nicer, rarer coins. Do whatever makes YOU happy.
BTW: I'm still learning too... that will never end in this hobby...
"Bongo hurtles along the rain soaked highway of life on underinflated bald retread tires."
~Wayne
When I started my pl/dmpl set, I initially set a price target of $300 -- trying to buy the most coin I could get (ie best grade) for under $300.
I think you will find coins easier to buy-and-hold, and easier to sell, if you limit yourself to slabbed coins from the big three graders, and you look for eye appeal. You might want to buy a reference guide as far as which years typically are weakly struck, etc.
-YN Currently Collecting & Researching Colonial World Coins, Especially Spanish Coins, With a Great Interest in WWII Militaria.
My Ebay!
<< <i>Do they make the albums without a place for the 1895 proof only? I don't want that hole sitting there. >>
I'm not for sure,but I'd thing they do.
I tend to focus on the grade I think it the best that's reasonably affordable, and at the grade where one notch up has a value several times higher. For example, if a coin sells for $70 in MS-62, $100 in MS-63 and $400 in MS-64, I go for the 63. So for the commons, I shoot for 65s. When less common, I'm usually going for MS-63 and -64. I've found that nice AU-58s are often have much nicer eye appeal than MS-60-62 grades; in almost all cases unless I saw what I thought a severely undergraded 62, I'd prefer the AU-58, and the lower cost is a bonus.
For example, while most of my Morgans are MS-63 to -65, a few are AU-55 and AU-58: 1884-S, 1886-O and 1896-O are 55, 58 and 58, respectively. These are relatively affordable in these grades, more attractive than a really banged up MS-61, and are all rare and four to five figures in MS-63.
I'm not thinking stuff like the '93-S or '89-CC yet; who knows -- by the time I get all the other coins before then, I'll hit a lottery or something...but I only have about 20 Morgans so far, so I have a long way to go before I even need to worry about it! There's a good chance I may have to drop down to XF (or even lower) for the toughest of the tough dates. But again, there's plenty of nice Morgans to acquire before crossing THAT bridge.
Other possibilities, if you insist on mint state coins, are "one a year" sets, where you have only one of each date without regard to mintmark, if any. If you can get past the 1895-dated coin, this isn't horribly expensive (the 1893-P and 1894-S are at least marginally affordable in MS-62 or MS-63).
In closing, I'd again encourage you to think about what's important to you in eye appeal. Do you consider traces of wear and small breaks in luster to be more detracting from appearance than a lot of hits and heavy bagmarks? If not, again, consider some AU-58s for the dates that are even too expensive in (say) 63, as a really nice AU-58 is often an MS-63 or MS-64 quality coin with just a trace of wear. I personally think they're MUCH nicer than most Morgans graded 60 and 61.