Beginner starting new Morgan Dollar Collection
dragonwalker
Posts: 22 ✭
I’ve had a passing interest in coins for a long time, but never got into it until recently. After a bit of research, I decided I wanted to collect Morgan Dollars from Carson City. Specifically, getting 1 coin from each year of minting, so 13 altogether. I looked at various price guides like the Greysheets, Numismedia, and various auction sites, and then recently went to a smaller local show, checked out their options, had a good conversation with a dealer, and then bought my first Morgan, an 1878-CC in MS63 with some light yellow toning along the edges.
Meanwhile, I finished reading the Redbook book on Morgans, which was a great read. Watching videos online and soaking up as much information on the hobby in general. I’m looking at expanding my collection gradually in the most cost-effective way possible, but I’m having trouble identifying the right opportunity, as prices seem to shift around by a great deal from price guides. This is where I’d like some help.
My thinking is that I should stick to buying graded coins from the biggest graders (for sure if I buy online) so that I can at least have some objective opinion on the quality and authenticity of a coin. I’m aware there are variances in grading, and it’s no guarantee, but I trust it more than my own opinion. It appears that coin shows might offer the best opportunity in my situation, but I’m open to ideas people have. I’m wary of buying online due to counterfeits and sellers presenting their coins in pictures that are very favorable. I would like to keep each coin I add to my collection under $1K, so I know certain key dates will be in poorer condition; however, if I save on some coins, I might splurge more for other coins. I’d like most of my coins to be in MS condition. I'm not so interested in VAMs at this point. Are there other resources people recommend I look at to continue researching? Is my thinking on this right?
Another thing I noticed is that I see a lot of dealers have ungraded Morgans. Are most of these ungraded varieties not MS and are AU or below? Can a better bargain be found among these coins than those that are graded? If bought from a coin dealer, is there a very low chance they are counterfeits, or have counterfeits gotten so good they slip through on a regular basis?
Comments
Look at recent sold listings on the online platforms for pricing.
there are counterfeit holders - know your morgans
one tell is the coin doesn't match the grade
I would learn as much as possible before you start this hard series.
Avoid ungraded coins until you familiarize yourself with the nuances that often comes with years of experience and looking at hundreds ( if not thousands) of coins in hand.
Sounds like you're off to a good start and asking the right questions. I'd stick to PCGS, NGC, or CACG graded coins and avoid raw coins. Personally, I'd go with PCGS only which is my preference.
Shows are an excellent place to see hundreds of CC's in hand. Don't be shy to ask to see a coin in a case. Need to examine both sides of course. I never shied away from raw CC coins on line if there is a return privilege. I have returned a few, usually do to poor pics, but very few. If you do look at raw coins keep in mind the cost of you getting them graded and include that price in any of your bids and offers.
Any raw that come up just cut and paste photos here for opinions, happy to help.
Good luck,
Oh and if you get a chance to visit Carson City, by all means do so. The old CC mint building is open (State Museum now) and worth the time to take it in. Great display of CC coinage and neat to check out the old Press #1.
bob
Look at some GSA CC’s as well.
This forum is a terrific tool especially if your buying online. Things have become so bad with counterfeit that newbies like you are the target for them.
Happy collecting.
Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
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OP - You seem to be off to a good start and heading down the right path with everything you wrote. You should find a dealer/coin shop that you trust and they can help you look at coins so that you can learn what to look for in good coins and bad.
I would also buy a copy of the ANA Grading Book https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ana+grading&crid=1NF3J3HU5G73H however I would agree that avoiding ungraded coins is the best idea for now.
You may want to buy a handful of cull (low grade, common date) raw coins on the cheap (basically silver value plus a few bucks) just to get an idea of how they feel, the ability to get a very close look with no plastic in the way, etc. Then, you can fool around with these and see the results (wipe them with a cloth to see how that looks, scratch them, etc) as it won't really remove any value from them.
Have fun!
I'm not sure if there is an EASIER series than Morgan dollars. Every single date/mm is easy to find, the coins are about the easiest to grade of any US coin, and the market is enormous and liquid. What is hard about it?
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
Is Lincoln Cents or Morgan Dollars an easier series to start off with?
If collecting the full 97 coins, then I would say expensive & fairly difficult, with some date/MM hard to get a nice example, even if low circulated grade. But just 13, 1 of each date, that is easy.
Close but probably Morgans (in my opinion). Understanding the surfaces of a big silver coin is inherently easier than a small copper one.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
Admirable start with CC Morgans. When you've had your fill, you should pursue either the rest of the Morgan Dollar series or assemble a set of other CC coins.
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Welcome to the wonderful world of Morgan Dollars! It looks like you have been very thoughtful so far. With your budget, you can get some very nice 82,83,84-CC coins but your 89-CC is going to be a VG8. Only you can decide if that bothers you or not.
Some people prefer only white coins but I think a great feature of Morgans is the variety of looks you can find. You might want a toned example and a prooflike (or DMPL) one. If the latter interests you, CC coins can be found with some of the best mirrors of any date in the series.
For example, here is my DMPL 83-CC:
And here’s a toned 84-CC I recently sold:
The prices for some of the keys and better dates.
Morgan dollars.
1.Every dealer at every show has them.
2. Easier coin to grade
3. Even the common dates are in inventory
4. you can find every date/MM readily available in slabs.
The only things "hard" is that they are pricier than Lincoln cents and there are counterfeits of even the common dates. But if you have money and stick to reputable sources, this is not a problem.
If you want to plug circulated coins into an album, then Lincolns might be easier. However, you will have a hard time finding the cheaper coins slabbed and you will, therefore, need to learn how to grade and hunt around more.
Look at GC or Heritage weekly auctions. You'll probably find 90% of the Morgans every week.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, even when irrefutably accurate.
@dragonwalker . It is ,of course, completely up to you, but since you allready know you will have to consider a wide spectrum of grades; you might also consider creating a grading set and finding 13 different grades for your set. I have pretty much built a grading set out of every coin type i have ever collected. I think it makes collecting more fun and challenging. James
I did look into this a bit and although I could not find any universal consensus especially between PCGS and NGC, I did come across information that PCGS slabbed coins sold for a greater premium than NGC.
In general, PCGS coins tend to sell for more, but probably not nearly as often as one would think from reading posts on this forum. Also, if they do sell for more, that means as a buyer, you have to pay more, before you can sell for more. 😉
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.