Were You Carting $1,000 Bags of Morgans from the Mint?

philographer · November 6, 2011 11:05AM

Did anyone here experience first hand the rush in the early 1960's of trading silver certificates for $1,000 bags of silver dollars from the Mint? Please share your stories. And post your pictures. I would love to see any old photos of a $1,000 bag, the trunk of your car with $1,000 bags, or a shot from back at the shop while sorting through them...

Thanks!

Edward

golden · November 6, 2011 11:47AM

I did not personally get any bags of Silver dollars from the Treasury.In that time period I went to a bank across town to look at a bag of 1887-O Dollars that a man had.He wanted $1100 for the bag and I passed.That was a lot of money for me to tie up then.

ProofArtworkonCircs · November 6, 2011 2:15PM

I gathered many a bag from the FRB of Boston in those days. Silver certificates were not required. Federal Reserve notes worked just find.
Only once did we get a bag of uncs. It was an audited bag (Treasury bag within a Fed bag). It had 999 pristine 1878 S and 1 beat up 1923 Peace. We all had 1878 S high grade already and were quite disappointed with our find. We could phone ahead and the dollars would be sitting on the counter when we got there.

AUandAG · November 6, 2011 2:27PM

I was working the hard count room at the Carson Hot Springs Casino and handled hundreds of
bags. Few were uncirculated. Those that were UNC did not stand out in my mind, as I don't remember
any dates/mintmarks.
I was paid in silver dollars that I picked out of the count. Was able to amass quite a nice collection.
Then I went to college and met my wife.....those dollars sure spent easily! This was fall of '64 and
spring of '65 that I spent them. It worked and we are still a team!

bob

ProofArtworkonCircs · November 6, 2011 4:01PM

I was married in 1956 and turned into the bank 3 rolls of Newfoundland sterling silver half dollars.

rec78 · November 6, 2011 4:01PM

Yes you only needed $1000 to order a bag but it did not need to be silver certificates-just $1000 in any kind of US money.The silver certificates were redeemable until about c.1967 .

I was 11 years old in 1962. My dad was skeptical that you could find anything of value in the silver dollars being released, UNTIL one day he went to a local bank and got 10 silver dollars-One of those 10 was an 1889-CC. $1000 was big-big money in 1962.He did not have $1000 so he borrowed some money from his older sister and ordered a bag a week. They would arrive at the bank on Wednesdays and he was on late shift at work to you know who went through them after school-ME. He went through them after I got done-Just in case I missed anything-We culled out all the better dates CC's and 1893-S's. One bag had 2 1893-S's in it and an 1859-S seated liberty dollar and some 1889-CC's. This lasted for 22 weeks (My dad kept records).The 23rd bag was only 500 coins -there was nothing in this one-Someone else had gone through it and took out all the goodies. This lasted until mid-winter 1963. Then there were no more. The best part was that there were no Peace Dollars in the bags. The bags were all locked away before Peace dollars came out.

We could not afford to keep them all, so the ones we did not want he took back to the bank and used them to trade in for the next weeks bag. One of the bags was a mint bag of 1904-O Morgans with the seal still intact.-Most of these coins were sold on Ebay from 2000-2005. I still have a few 1904-O's that my dad had graded by PCGS as MS65 and MS65PL. There was no VAM book back then or much info on varieties, so who knows what we turned back in. There were many low grade of the commoner date CC's mostly ag-vg. The 1859-S was the only seated dollar we found. There was a grand total of 5 1893-S's with one of them so worn that you could only see the date and the MM -P1 for sure. This one we sold right away. The hardest date to find was the 1894. We only found one of these and it was only a low grade G. I still have a few of these dollars in my collection but not very many.

Bob

LanceNewmanOCC · November 6, 2011 6:30PM

.
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i did not (because i wasn't alive then) but would still like to share

sitting across from the 2008 numismatist of the year on many occasions 1 on 1 have been told many a story and of those stories is this one

after buying many vans and hiring many employees to make trips to pick up the sealed mint bag dollars

he managed to accumulate at one point $1,000,000 in silver dollar certificates from dozens and dozens of banks to trade for silver dollar coins in mint sealed bags

hearing the lengthy version about receiving mint sealed bags of key date morgans in gem unc so much so that a separate bank was built just to house the bags aside from all the other storage being used

is just simply mind-boggling to me still to this day

on the subject of hoards.

hearing this same person talk about the (redfield hoard i think) judge that stopped the auction estate sale of a multi-million dollar (millions then!) hoard from going to auction where the prices realized would most likely be

nominal and not in the best interest of the estate based on the person that I speak of and 1 other huge numismatic dealer at the time work together to purchase the hoard and split it without it going to auction and likely

increasing the income from that sale vs auction was just as mind boggling.

also hearing from an employee about a family that had accumulated 3 apple baskets full of silver dimes by the time that bullion skyrocketed in the 80s and telling of what was found in those hundreds of pounds of dimes just

left me speachless, not to mention the other numerous stories provable with invoices was nearly too much for my little mind to bare!

Don't hear as many as I used to but still come across some doozies from time to time.

would post some more stories but cannot sleep for the life of me and as such my brain is too tired but apparently not tired enough for sleep >< even with my new "perfect luxury contour pillow" too bad it wasn't filled with

something that would knock me out cold on cue, even if i slept on the floor ><. in that case they could keep the stoopid pillow lol
.
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tydye · November 6, 2011 8:33PM

Great story rec78. My dad also went through bags in the 60s. Put together a nice collection. But unlike your dad mine sold all his back then for a car and marriage.

dimples · November 7, 2011 3:16AM

And here my dad bought 1 measley roll from the bank at that time choice BU 1883-0's. My siblings and I received one each at christmas till they ran out. I sold my 6-7 to Old Roman Coin in the 80's at $55 apiece during the silver craze.

SaorAlba · November 7, 2011 5:10AM

Wow is all I can say, because I was born too late for that craze. In fact the only time I ever got a real silver dollar, an 1897, was in ca. 1976 when I was a kid. I was standing in line in an A&W waiting to buy a gallon jug of rootbeer when an older man ahead of me paid for his lunch with the coin. Of course I promptly bought it from the cashier - but then I didn't have enough for the rootbeer so I had to run back home and scrounge out an older dollar bill out of my collection to buy the rootbeer. The rootbeer is long gone, but I still have the dollar somewhere.

MercLovin · November 7, 2011 5:33AM

<< <i>Wow is all I can say, because I was born too late for that craze. In fact the only time I ever got a real silver dollar, an 1897, was in ca. 1976 when I was a kid. I was standing in line in an A&W waiting to buy a gallon jug of rootbeer when an older man ahead of me paid for his lunch with the coin. Of course I promptly bought it from the cashier - but then I didn't have enough for the rootbeer so I had to run back home and scrounge out an older dollar bill out of my collection to buy the rootbeer. The rootbeer is long gone, but I still have the dollar somewhere. >>

I've recieved five silver dollars from tellers over the past year, so they're still out there...

My finds in chronological order;

1922 Peace with 60 Ikes.
1889 Morgan and two 1921 Morgans with 2 Ikes, one of which was a MS 1972 T2.
1973-S Ike, burnished, with 75 other Ikes.

shorecoll · November 7, 2011 6:58AM

In our area a local grocer accumulated big toilet paper boxes of silver coins from 64 until the peak in 1980. Sold $100k face near the peak. He was also a collector of coins, coin glass, mechanical banks and paper money.

In our little town we had a big time mail-order dealer who was active with full page ads in numismatist, numismatic scrapbook, etc. all through the 50's and 60's. He was independently wealthy before he became a coin dealer, but up until the late 80's he had leased all available bank vault space in a 20+ mile radius of our town for bags. He was a hard money guy and could easily have afforded 1,000 bags or more. I was fairly young when dealing with him and he had fun popping my eyes out with the stuff he would show me, knowing I couldn't afford any of it. There are some seasoned veterans on here who might faint to see some of the stuff he could pull out. I once asked him if he had any Shield nickels...he handed me a double row 2x2 stock box, half were proof and unc shield nickels, the other row was half-dimes starting with a half-disme. I almost dropped the box.

coastaljerseyguy · November 7, 2011 8:27AM

My story with Morgan mint bags was as a 6 year old back in 63. My dad worked for a small National bank in Hudson County NJ. He arranged for the receipt of many mint bags for a local collector, I believe his name was Charlie Ross. One Sat I had to help my Dad who was managing the move of the bags to the collectors vault @ Commercial Trust in Jersey City. Since all the bags couldn't fit into the Brink's truck, we had to load some into our station wagon which dragged all the way to JC. Several bags were chosen at random to count and weigh on a scale. Then the rest were weighed. There the bags were loaded into a small room with bars to the ceiling in the main vault - the room was bigger than a small laundry room.

I helped count. When counting 1 bag, I noted how the bag was full on shiny coins. The collector gave me 1. That coin is my avatar, an 82-S which I still have. Whoever thinks a white Morgan had to be dipped is wrong. I may be the only owner of that coin and it was never dipped.

I guess there were a minimum of 100 to 300 bags loaded into the vault. After loading, I remember they couldn't close the gate, and the bags were stacked 2 or 3 high. They were cursing. They had to move half out and restack higher.

GAT · November 7, 2011 8:29AM

As I remember the Federal Reserve branch in Los Angeles had a 5 silver Dollar limit in exchange for paper.

penny4yourthoughts · November 7, 2011 8:32AM

I recently helped a coworker sell 30 rolls of dollars, all unc, nothing special...the peace were all off of the same die...it was fun.

morgantype · November 7, 2011 8:43AM

Rec78

Thanks for the great story!

Alas, I was too you g to partake.

I did have a grand old time about 3 years ago going through tons of half dollar boxes. I used to go through them with my parents, it created some fond memories for all of us.

Thanks again!

GritsMan · November 7, 2011 8:45AM

Wow. Good stories. When I began coin collecting (about 1964) at age 5, we lived in married students housing at UCSB. We were poor, but doing better than they had when first married. I used to die every time they told me they had 11 silver dollars at one time, but had to use them to buy groceries! I used to drool over the silver dollars at the local coin shop, and didn't even own one until the early 1970s. The closest I ever got to the Big Score was the GSA sale of CC dollars--that is, until the Mint offerings of 2006-2008!

fishcooker · November 7, 2011 8:55AM

Heh. $1,000 then is probably $50,000 today. Who has $50,000 in golden dollars stashed away.

philographer · November 7, 2011 3:42PM

Thanks for sharing! Great stories. It must have been an interesting time!

Twinturbo · November 7, 2011 3:58PM

A fun tidbit $1000 in 1964 is over $7200 today!!!

My grandpa and dad still have all of my grandpa's bags he purchased from 59-64. Ill post the story later

DDR · November 8, 2011 12:37AM

Great stories!

droopyd · November 8, 2011 12:56AM

I vaguely remember when these bags went on sale (I was 4 at the time).

I thought it would have been a good idea to get one, but my Dad used the money for a down payment in our family's first house instead.

RichR · November 8, 2011 1:20AM

My father was a collector, but he didn't work in Manhattan. However, my mother worked downtown and would pick up smaller (not $1000) bags at the NY Fed, which she would then carry home on the subway! And my mother made this trip several times.

My father would look through the bags and pick out anything he needed to fill the holes in his Whitman blue albums. He actually assembled 3 or 4 partial collections contained with 12 or 15 albums. He would then bring the bags into his office for the other guys to look through (and pay him for whatever they took).

Decades lates, when I asked my father, "Why didn't you just keep EVERYTHING, you old fool?" he replied, "Because $100 was actually a lot of money back then, you young punk!"

And a PS...mom died in 2002 and dad followed in 2003. As I was looking through those old albums the other night, those old circulated coins actually have quite a lot of sentimental value now...as I remember their efforts to collect them.

RichR · November 8, 2011 1:23AM

<<Heh. $1,000 then is probably $50,000 today.>>

No kidding...all collector value aside, we know it's worth at least $35,000 in melt!

SanctionII · November 8, 2011 2:33AM

I started collecting in 1963 at 7 years of age.

I do not have stories of hundreds or thousands of silver dollars. My silver dollar experiences are much more limited.

My parents had a few circulated common date Morgans and Peace dollars that eventually were given to me. I have sold them over the past few years. I still have a circulated 1890-CC Morgan my mother gave me. The coin belonged to her sister, who had found it lying on the street in the 1950's or early 1960's. When my aunt died, my mom went to Iowa for the funeral. Other family members and my mom split up the belongings of my aunt. My mom took the Morgan, brought it home and gave it to me. My parents also opened a bank account in the 1960's and for doing so the bank gave them a Morgan dollar. It is an 1882S Morgan that is probably MS64. It has a very clean obverse and is blast white. My parents gave it to me and I still have it.

Bochiman · November 8, 2011 2:34AM

My mom wasn't even carting me around, much less me carting $1,000 bags of Morgans from the mint...

jkal · November 8, 2011 3:46AM

I remember in about 1963 I was 6 YO and my dad came in the house carrying a $100 silver dollar bag he had purchased in Las Vegas on the way home from a business trip. My older sister and I dumped the circulated bag on the living room carpet and made 3 piles of 33 each for the 3 of us kids. My dad laughed and said what are you doing....you can each have one! I had a hard time picking from the Eagle with its wings open or closed.
note: I ran real fast a few days later and knocked my sisters friend down and ran her nylons stockings. She came to the door complaining to my dad and I had to give her a dollar (my silver dollar). I remember going out with my mom and spending those silver dollars on groceries and other stuff. Money was tight back then.

philographer · November 8, 2011 7:38AM

<< <i>A fun tidbit $1000 in 1964 is over $7200 today!!!

My grandpa and dad still have all of my grandpa's bags he purchased from 59-64. Ill post the story later >>

A picture would be great!

kevinstang · November 8, 2011 8:05AM

<< <i>

<< <i>A fun tidbit $1000 in 1964 is over $7200 today!!!

My grandpa and dad still have all of my grandpa's bags he purchased from 59-64. Ill post the story later >>

A picture would be great! >>

Yeah, but are the bags still full of silver dollars- or did he just keep the old bags?

Were You Carting $1,000 Bags of Morgans from the Mint?

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