Ever heard of a massive hoard of Morgans in Northern Indiana?
planonit
Posts: 525 ✭✭
Ok so this is weird. I used to talk to this lower-level collector guy in Northern Indiana who years ago told me about this friend of his wife that called him asking him to come look at her husband's collection. The husband had died and he went over expecting some common Morgans. When he gt there he said she led him into a walk in close that had partially been converted to a safe (ie thick locked door).
He told me he was blown away. He said the wife said her husband just bought Morgans when he could. He said he estimated like 30k Morgans and many were Ms and he saw many Carson City. He had told me he gave her the number of some big dealers because way out of his league and had not heard from here in a few years.
So I am talking to this collector out West and we starting telling stories and he mentions how he knew a guy in Arizona who would come from Indiana every so often and would bring "buckets full or Morgans". He never really said where he got them but just said he bought them but the guy was fuzzy on details. He said this was about 6 or 7 years ago. I asked where he was from and he said Ft. Wayne.
It just sort of took me back. That is the same time as this woman's husband died and from the town (well just outside it).
Comments
The government melted a little more than a quarter-billion Morgans (270 million) in 1918 due to the Pittman act and pressures from WWI. After another 87 million were minted in 1921 to leave us around 390 million!!! Sure, many have been melted since then during various silver booms, but if 15% of the remaining mintage survives, there are still around 60 million of them floating around.
The massive Redfield hoard contained about 600 bags, or roughly 1% of the total...... in reality only a small blip.
Someone owns them all. There are bound to be a few more "hoards" here and there.
A haul of that size would be almost 1,800 pounds. I hope they had a reinforced floor.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
A guy I would visit with and sell coins to had a floor safe full of rolls of silver dollars (circa 1990). He passed away in 2011 and his family blew them all out on eBay for more money than they could have imagined.
People who run down "widgets" don't know how silly they sound lol.
Would love to run into an old collectors hoard.... what fun that would be. I have no doubt they exist...Cheers, RickO
DIdnt a hoard of 1879s rev of 78(second rev) uncirculated morgans make it to that part of the country?
Morgans are common, common, common. Huge numbers came out back in 1962-63 and later during the GSA sales. Hoarders love Morgans so no one should be surprised when large hoards start hitting the market.
I was told about 25 years ago that a distant relative in northern Indiana was buying a lot of Morgans. I wonder if it is the same group......
I had a patient from here in S. Nevada that has or had (he died recently and his daughter now has them) many bags of Morgans. I was not able to view them and I just took his word for it along with his daughter's. She said that he paid for his last pickup truck with Unc Morgans that he traded to the Chevy dealer. I believe him and her. He was an engineer here in S. Nevada and had come here to work on the Hoover Dam facility years after it was built. He worked on the electrical transmission towers/lines that came out of the dam. He would be 95 today if he were still with us. His daughter is my age and very knowledgeable on the coins/silver that he has. She took my card just in case she needs help! Some day I hope to hear from her!
I live in the area. I have never heard anything about this story. If anybody knows Jim Fairfield of Fairfield's Rare Coins. the areas top dealer. He would know.