Need your help - Jumping into collecting Morgan dollars

[Rastatodd]

Hello,
I am thinking about dipping my toes into collecting Morgan dollars. I don't have deep pockets but I am willing to spend on years that will increase in value in the coming years. Is there any books that a person new to this endeavor should acquire before stepping into this new hobby. My thought was to acquire graded coins from graders like PCGS at first since grading will not be my strong suite. Any help the members can give this "newbie" would be gratefully accepted.
Thanks,
Todd

[John Reich]

For books, David Bowers "Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia" covers the entire silver dollar series from 1795 to 1964 and has a lot of good information. The book is out of print and can be expensive. If you want to get into cherry picking varieties, the Van Allen/Mallis book "Comprehensive Catalogue and Encyclopedia of U.S. Morgan and Peace Silver Dollars" is a must.

As far as collecting, I would start out by looking a coins at shows and your LCS: preferably PCGS or NGC graded coins. Putting together a grading set of PCGS coins would be a good, inexpensive start. Depending on your budget, you can buy a ton of different dates and mintmarks in PCGS 63, 64 or 65 for type money.

For increase in value/making money I suggest learning all you can about the series. There are many ways to cherry pick: If you get into the Van Allen/Mallis (VAM) varieties, you will be able to find unattributed varieties in dealer's stocks. Learn the rare ones! Another way is to become a spot-on PCGS grader--there are a lot of coins in the series where an increase in grade by one point means a big increase in price. If you can buy a holdered coin and "crack it out" for an up grade, or find an undervalued "raw" coin you can do well. Finally, look into proof-like and toned coins. Some coins are very rare in proof-like or deep mirrored proof like and you can do well if you cherry pick one. Original toned coins with nice color are also in high demand.

Hope this helps! I'm not the expert in this area though--calling Doc Rodebaugh to check this out and elaborate/correct any mistakes!

[beauanderos]

Doc is the expert. He may have a book or two from his library that is best for beginner's to acquire a knowledge base. He might be willing to part with
one at a fair price, or trade for a bit of shiny. Certainly he can save you much time on your learning curve. Go over to PCGS.com and spend time on
their photograding site. I suspect that grading is much an art as it is a science. The trick is to learn which raw coins offered for sale have been undergraded
by the seller and represent a buy low sell high opportunity. Go over to numismedia.com and look at some of the price jumps merely between say, an MS-64 and
an MS-65. Sometimes the leap can be impressive. Considering appreciation, you'll have to recognize that as grade increases, the niche of available collectors
likely decreases due to affordability issues. Common wisdom says to buy the highest grade coin you can afford, preferably sticking to key dates. I don't collect
Morgan's myself, but I suspect that you wouldn't want to say, overspend on common dates by picking up an MS-67 or higher, but Doc could tell you. There are
also back issues of Coin World magazine (and might be some magazines totally devoted to grading/collecting Morgans).

If I wanted to embark on your project myself, however, some of the above advice I would disregard. I would pick the lowest price Morgans I could find (probably
1921's... and slowly (budget permitting) pick up your own personal grading scale set. Buy an MS-60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, etc. Try to get only one third party grader,
PCGS is better than NGC. Then learn to look for clues on what separates them. Compare to the pictures on photograde. Compare to pics on ebay. Take to LCS and
ask if the dealer feels they are correctly graded... why or why not?

The best investment you can make is in learning, regardless of whether you ever actually make significant progress on your proposed endeavor. Learn all you can
before you dip your toes into the water. You want to avoid buying over-graded coins, which sellers will offer you. You'll also learn a lot of dealers will under-grade
what you have to sell... but armed with the knowledge of correct grading you can learn to recognize that con and avoid those individuals like the plague.

Good luck, Todd

Beware slabbed fakes on ebay.

[Rastatodd]

Thank you, gentlemen. Going slow and reading everything I can.

[daviscfad]

The biggest thing about morgans are fakes.. there everywhere.. morgans are also very costly these days.. try getting them for melt.. doesnt happen anymore.. dont overpay.. graded or ungraded.. their are some cherries to be found that are undergraded.. usually they are in older pcgs or anacs holders.. 1903-o were very rare until 1962 when the government started selling bags.. Vams are another thing people cherrypick.. certain VAMs carry huge premiums.. but again morgans are costly now.. you should be prepared to spend thousands if you wanna make a set.. Morgans are cool and very popular to most people except Adam youngs & "slickeast apparently".. but check out VAM world

[slickeast]

Jumping into Morgans is like saying I am going to explore the ocean. The WHOLE ocean. The variety, VAM's, grading, yadda yadda yadda is HUGE. Some that can have a big price difference with just 1 grade higher.

You can go the boring route and buy CAC PCGS coins. In doing this you will pay top dollar and have no room to make a profit when you sell. The guys that have vast knowledge and make good money flipping Morgans live , eat and breathe Morgans

And for the record...I'm with Adam on this subject.

[johnbrickner]

Yes, stay away from Mark at Eastern Numismatics. He'll sell you common date Morgans from PCGS MS60 - MS63 for only $69 each!

Oh, which seems to be about the price for PCGS MS64 commons over on HA.com for the last 3 months when applied to the spectrum offered.

And yea, read up.

[frugi]

One time I sold a really good morgan for a client.......it fetched $50,000.00

It was a proof morgan 1895 P, sadly my commission was only 2%, but it was pretty awesome to just hold it in my hand.

11351119_10207320877810256_139611457093408454_n.jpg (86.25 KiB) Viewed 1887 times

11377181_10207320878890283_7896749504354943394_n.jpg (75.23 KiB) Viewed 1887 times

[beauanderos]

One time I sold a really good morgan for a client.......it fetched $50,000.00

It was a proof morgan 1895 P, sadly my commission was only 2%, but it was pretty awesome to just hold it in my hand.

11351119_10207320877810256_139611457093408454_n.jpg

11377181_10207320878890283_7896749504354943394_n.jpg

pshaaaawww. Doc has a bunch of those!

[Rastatodd]

Local auction here in the Twin Cities. Going to view this 1883-S Morgan Dollar on Monday. Bringing my loupe and try to bring what little I have seen and read about Morgans to determine a grade. I have read that this Morgan is a key date. See if I can snag this for a good price on this little known auction site.
Sorry for the small pic. Described as having lots of luster. Auction closes on Wednesday the 16th.
http://images.k-bid.com/55f062ac82/T24-1.jpg

[Rodebaugh]

My advise:

Try a matched set. Work in the VF20-XF40 range and stick there. Buy only coins that fit the look that your set is to have.

As for grading, try the 18th addition of photograde by whitman.