Rainbow Toned Morgan Dollar Market
rays
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To those in the know, what is the current market like for rainbow toned Morgans? I have this one I bought from Adrian many years ago, it is actually much more vividly and attractively toned in hand (both sides). Is there a preferred venue for selling these, I know legend auctions has some on occasion.
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I've seen nice ones go for crazy prices, especially in the Legend auctions. Great Collections has seen some strong prices for the nice toners too.
Accurate images for those that can't see the coin in hand are a plus too. What is badly needed are short video clips showing the coins being turned under the lighting.
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Not to be a negative Nancy, but that coin will not bring big money. Nice coin good luster I'm sure, but not a very desirable toned coin. JMHO
Rainbow Stars
Instead of the normal $50-$55 MS64 price, maybe brings an extra $5-$40 at a GC auction. And GC auctions are a good place to see what all levels of Morgan toners bring. They have an active site for these. Go to the GC site and search the auction archives (Morgan dollars - MS64 grade - price range of $100+ - and a min of 15-20 bids - enter keyword "toned"). You'll run into plenty of them and get a good feel how vibrant a coin needs to be. The best toners might get 30-50 bids. GC typically has a few dozen toner coins every week, with some A- and A level coins at times.
I'd say a B+ toner for a common MS64 date runs in the $85-$250 range. Step this up to A- level and it could bring $275-$500. A full fledged "A" level toner in MS64 could be $500-$1000...maybe more depending on how incredible. Figure a 10X premium is pretty darn wonderful. But premiums of 50X to 100X have occurred for the best of the best. I recall at Morphy/Legend some MS66 monster toner common date going for something in the mid $20K's. My numbers above are based on what I've seen at GC over the past 14 months....maybe a touch of subjectivity too. I would say that toners up to A- level seem to be quite a bit cheaper than this time last year....probably due to common choice/gem Morgans in general being weaker.
Venue for selling? I'd seriously consider GC. Very reasonable rates, no bs, the coin gets sold. Or, walk the coin on the bourse floor. I think you'd to better at GC if the coin is truly B+ or better. Most dealers want to buy B+ or lower toners at little to no premium. If you want all the money for a 64 toner, it's very helpful that the coin doesn't have other distractions such as being low end, spotted, or with heavy focal point hits. A lot of nice toner coins are already given a grade bump so you in fact have a 63 coin in a 64 holder. If you can get a 64 toner that's strong for the grade on both sides, no distractions, etc.....all the better....and the stronger the price.
My suggested search at GC. Up the bids to 35+ and you'll get the top 100 rather than the top 1000.
http://www.greatcollections.com/search.php?ended=1&sold=1&fromyear=1879&toyear=1887&grade_range_1=64&grade_range_2=64&fromprice=75.00&toprice=1500.00&mode=product&sort=01&series=55&q=toned&denomination[]=13&listing_type=4&frombid=15&tobid=500
My only comment about some of the toners out there.....I don't know for sure how many have been "toned" within the past few years. That's important too.
http://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/353885/1887-Morgan-Silver-Dollar-PCGS-MS-64-CAC-Toned
That 1887 MS64 went for nearly $1900 just a few weeks ago....over 50 bids. That's a toner. A number of bidders up to $500. 3 to $1,000. Just 2 took from $1,000 and up.
This is probably one of the most subjective areas of Numismatics.
Not a rainbow, but should sell for a small premium. Nice coin:)
Close to a rainbow.
Both coins above are not getting much for premium these days. They have to be bright florescent type color.
check out what the northern lights toners brought in the may legend auction sale two weeks ago. those were the real deal.
all the wild coins brought "beyond moon money".
And that's because they were beyond the moon type toners
Rainbow Stars
They crescent rainbow should at least double greysheet. The first one maybe a very slight premium at best.
That toner above probably 3X or more normal MS64 money. Seems like a "premium" to me. The first 2 below brought $133-$146 recently, and are not as strong as Grip's above. Real results. Bright, florescent colors are not required for strong premiums, though certainly helpful....see 3rd coin.
http://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/353885/1887-Morgan-Silver-Dollar-PCGS-MS-64-CAC-Toned
http://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/451507/1884-Morgan-Silver-Dollar-PCGS-MS-64-Toned
http://www.greatcollections.com/Coin/454765/1885-O-Morgan-Silver-Dollar-PCGS-MS-64-Toned
The picture of the coin in the first post isn't really good enough to be able to give a good estimate of the premium it can bring.
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The market for rainbow Morgans is quite unusual. For the very best it is thin at the top but extremely deep in dollars. Think of it like a pyramid. For that 1887, there are a lot of people interested up until maybe $400, only two above $1K and who knows how much higher that last one is. The thing that separates this market is that the top buyers pursue any and all coins they like and there is no such thing as a duplicate. It'd be like bidding against 3 or 4 TDNs on every single nice seated dollar. I have been the underbidder in two auctions where there were only 2 bidders above 4K. One coin went for 8K, the other went for over 10K (although that was a Peace Dollar).
The OP coin, if toned nicely on both sides is probably around $150-$200. Dual sided toners are pretty rare.
grip's coin, if a common date MS64, is probably $350.
Nice toners graded by PCGS with a CAC sticker still bring a big buck $$$$
This entire market segment boggles the mind....
Cheers, RickO
Be prepared to possibly be a little sad when you sell it if it had the Anaconda sizzle premium. I love Morgans, especially toners. But that one didn't have me scrambling to send a private message.
Send it to GC.
I'm already a little sad as I see similar ones sold on GC for a fraction of what I paid. A lesson learned, don't buy if you don't know what its really worth. When I bought it at Long Beach, I did check another dealer's case with toned Morgans and they seemed similarly priced, It does look nicer in hand than my amateur photo suggests. I bought it because I liked the color, I am not a big fan of the dark purple toned Morgans.
I really like the first coin pictured, and would pay a premium. Not 3x, but more than generic 64 money. But that's me...
LRC Numismatics eBay listings:
http://stores.ebay.com/lrcnumismatics
in 2003, your coin sold for $920 at Heritage. The Heritage photos are not up to snuff with some of the professionals around here, but good enough to tell it's a pretty coin. I suspect you should not dump it at a fire sale price and instead, sell in a venue that will use excellent photography. Get a sticker on it too.
Heritage link: https://coins.ha.com/itm/morgan-dollars/1885-1-ms64-pcgs-bright-gold-ruby-red-and-powder-/a/328-8602.s?hdnJumpToLot=1x=0&y=0
It's a nice coin. I like it. And as long as you have liked it, I think you have won the day!
And if you need to sell it, heed BDs advice!
Thank you BD for reporting this information. I don't know why I didn't check HA myself, it just never occurred to me that this coin would have been sold by them.
So my last question gets back to my first: what is the state of the toned Morgan market, has it advanced, declined or stayed the same since 2003?
You know what you paid for the coin and you know what someone paid in 2003. AFAIK, the market for toned dollars has gone up since then..
A great example of how photos can help or hurt a coin. So much for it being worth under $100. Looks like David3142 at $350 probably isn't that far off. Maybe in the $150-$500 range? No way to know until you put it up for sale. CAC sticker would be a huge plus. Hard to believe that a toner bid up to $900 back in 2003 would be worth a tiny fraction today. The overall market in 2003 was pretty weak....even for toners imo. If anything, real toners have advanced in price since then, though with the caveat that it probably takes a more exceptional toning to bring the same price today. So-So B+ to A- toners from 2003 might not be worth as much today....maybe a lot less. But no doubt that the all there "A" level toners, cream of the crop are much higher today. Just look at the Legend Auction results.
A super "A" level toner from 2003 could have been $5K or $10K.....today that same coin could be $20K to $50K. It takes more "toner" today to be a "toner" as more of them have showed up.....just like the coin market in general where the top end remains sort of steady while everything under it continues to fill up with more examples. Send it to GC for CACing and auction.
There was a time when any color at all went high. Not now. Reverse toners are worse yet.
I also would be surprised if a common MS-64 coin that once sold for $900 has not made it's way to CAC already. Coin must be way nicer in hand than any of the pics.
I bought this coin in 2005, which was before CAC began operations.
Send it in!
5 to 40 dollars over the normal 64 price of 50-55 dollars? I like the look of it not as much as the snake probably charged but I would gladly pay the less than 100.00 mentioned. Heck, I will pay shipping and as Dog97 and myself used to do even include a bit for a snack on the way to Po. Sorry, no money for your time or wear and tear on your tires.
Just let me know where to send payment. Of course it would not be wise to sell to just any dealer at a show. But look and see what they sell it for after they tell you it is nothing special and no monster. I am a bit like you I don't care for so called monsters. And most labeled that are not and not rainbow. I do like them better in gem. Oh, and for a coin such as this I couldn't care less whether it has been to the sticker mill.
All my opinion here, don't like it, anybody can hit the back button. Heh
I think you picked the wrong coin for your first example. That one topped $1700.
The third coin was owned by a forum member.
Checking the cert number with PCGS gives a link to the Heritage sale.