Some tips on buying Morgan Dollars for those new to the series.

Having collected Morgans for most of my life, I would love to offer some tips for new collectors to the series. Once again, feel free to jump in and offer your own suggestions. This is based on years of collecting, and having bought and sold the complete series multiple times. However, collecting the entire series is a massive and expensive undertaking, and I would NOT recommend trying to do that, unless your passion for Morgan Dollars is extremely strong. We are talking about prices running into high 5 and 6 figures for a nice set, and that simply isn't practical for most folks. However, the easier dates make for lots of fun and a venture into one of the most popular and historically interesting series (the coins were minted in the "Wild West" days; multiple mints (P, S, O, CC and even one date in D) existed for the series, and it spanned the 1870s through the twentieth century.

First, decide what grade of coin you can afford. Most collectors go for uncirculated coins (since common date Morgans are easy to find cheaply, due to high mintages and good uncirculated storage). I recommend going for the easy dates in MS 63-65, as one has a coin that is generally affordable, and will look attractive. The dates I would start with are:

Philadelphia: 1879-1890, 1903, 1904
San Francisco: 1878-1883 (these coins are nicely struck and easy to find attractive examples)
New Orleans: 1880-1888, 1898-1904, except 1903o, which is tough.
Carson City: 1882, 1883, 1884 (all the others get tough, due to high prices and lower mintages).
ALL versions of 1921. They're all common.

This gives a good starting point for collectors, and one can pick up quite a variety of coins. No sense starting out with 1893s, 1889cc, or 1884s in MS condition--or any of the 1892-1895 coins. Those take many years to acquire, and one has to settle for badly worn "place holder" coins, or details coins, in lieu of spending a fortune. Get the nice looking common coins, and get what you like to look at. If you like blast white coins, many Morgans are market acceptable being white and generic. MS 64 grades for most of the above mentioned dates are quite reasonable in cost.

In terms of acquiring Morgans, a RELIABLE source of coin acquisition is essential. Cleaning, whizzing, and over dipping is quite common for those coins, as is counterfeiting. Now, one may ask, why counterfeit an 1884o Morgan that is so common? Answer--because they are easily sold in volume, and nobody asks too many questions about a date that common. Morgans are one of the most faked series in creation, so I strongly recommend BUYING CERTIFIED COINS ONLY, until one develops considerable expertise in grading and evaluation of eye appeal, and whether or not a coin is cleaned. It was popular to clean that series, and many unscrupulous dealers do exactly that--so having the TPG seal of approval makes sense if one isn't dead on familiar with Morgans.

Raw coins can be collected once somebody gets good at the series, but be careful--there are fakes that would fool experienced collectors from the far East. They are struck, are in Silver, and look pretty good. This is why I recommend starting with certified coins only from REPUTABLE dealers. Don't necessarily avoid E bay, as one can find many good buys there for common Morgan Dollars, as there is a lot of competition. However, if you do buy there, make sure the dealer is esteemed and reputable--ask many of us, as we know these dealers personally, in many cases. I won't discuss toned coins here, as that is an art and a specialty, and should only be done by an experienced collector who knows what he/she is doing with regard to the series.

I hope this is some help for newbies to the exciting series of Morgan Dollars. Please feel free to add suggestions, comments, and additions.

 

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great post!

Let me add a fun way to collect morgans/peace is to buy "junk" morgans for slightly over melt value.......won't have a bunch of bulky slabs

 

There is a tremendous amount of terrific information in this thread. Morgan collectors should read this more than one time.

 

Thanks for your post very good beginner info. I too specialize in Morgans. When I stray I usually always find myself buying Morgans in the end. There is so much to collect in the series and so many ways to collect. Vams, keys ,low balls, ms,pl,dmpl, mint mark, mint issues,proofs. I would say one thing which I have learned about grading them, learn the luster. Know what a natural lustrous coin looks like and it will help in grading ms, au ,xf coins. The split from au58 to ms60+ was always tough for me and now I can say the more you hold and study the better you will be at grading. Go to coin shops and pull out a nice 5x magnifier and rotate the coin under indirect light. The rotating of the coin will help focus on picking up problems with the coin.

 

Great thread.

 

Every Morgan dollar I add to my collection must be a special coin, i.e. it must be either a CC, a PL, a VAM, 7/8 or 8TF or have outstanding eye-appeal (if possible as NGC star). I am skipping key-dates as completing the series is not an objective. My advice: Quality over quantity. Thanks for starting the thread MD...

 

I am at that stage, as I collect primarily toned Morgans and PL, DMPL ones. However, these are NOT specialties that I recommend to newbies, as those coins require some expertise to maximize eye appeal for minimum price.

 

Great write-up MD. I often feel I've been neglecting my Morgan set. Such a fun series to pursue.

 

Yet for some reason they just dont light my fire. I just cant get all that excited over a morgan dollar

 

What year was the morgan dollar struck with a D mint mark?

 

1921

 

"Let me add a fun way to collect morgans/peace is to buy "junk" morgans for slightly over melt value.......won't have a bunch of bulky slabs "

There are plenty of sites where you can do just that, and although the coins may be heavily worn, holed, bent, or damaged, there's something special about a pile of real silver dollars from that era, something a pile of clad Ikes can never replicate!

 

It's fun when people not interested in coins see your Morgans and say 'WOW what a coin!'...

 

I might add that gathering some knowledge in regards to weak strikes within the series, can and will save you a few headaches and heartaches from time to time. Some dates are just awful hard to find with a good strike. At least, that's been my experience. Hard to find a good strike on certain dates, when in all actuality, very few, I mean very few, even exist.

Sometimes a weakly struck Morgan will appear to show slight wear, but what you are actually seeing is a weak strike. There are 5 dates I've had trouble with in the past that seem to fit well in relation to my point. They are the 1891-O, 1892-O, 1894-O, 1901 and the 1921-S. There may be others, but these five seem to be the worst.

 

I think it's safe to say that until the 1900's, finding a well struck O mint coin is tough. I'm talking about nice hair detail over the ear and breast feather detail on the reverse.

 

Agreed. The counterpart for some of the weakly struck O mint coins are the early 1880 S (1880, 1881, 1882, 1883) mint coins. Those are graded very toughly by TPGs, inasmuch as their strikes are so good.

 

Get a very strong rare earth magnet and do the slide test on every one you buy that's not slabbed.

 

That is inconclusive for many of the Chinese high quality fakes. Better advice is NOT to buy unslabbed Morgans if you are not extremely familiar with the series.