Morgans-Love em or Hate em?

not my favorite coin. but I do like them. they give me that old wild west feeling.

 

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I really like Morgans. So do many collectors as evidenced by their popularity. As far as the design goes, they may not be the most beautiful coin out there. But what draws me to them is the interesting history behind them.

I'm a bit of a history nut, and history is really a big part of what draws me to numismatics in general. The history behind the Morgan dollar is truly fascinating. Just a couple of quick historic facts that draw me to the series and some reasons I enjoy collecting them.

-The Bland-Allison act that created the Morgan dollar, was passed as a concession to silver miners in the 1870's.
-Many Morgans never circulated, and were stored in government vaults for years.
-Many millions more were melted down in the early 1920's, no doubt creating instant date/mm rarities.
-Some did circulate out west, on what was the frontier at the time due to mistrust in govt issued paper money.
-As recently as the 1950s some casinos issued them at face value from slot machines or at the gambling tables. There might be some on this forum who even remember those days.
-In the early 60's bags that had been stored in govt vaults for decades were re-discovered and released to the public. Many previously super-rare Morgans became fairly common, the 1903 O is one of these.
-You can collect them in many different ways, a full business strike set by date/mm. You can assemble a set just from one mint, collecting only those from the Carson City mint or CC mint is a popular set.
-You can collect a date set relatively inexpensively.
-You can still get a common date/mm for under $30.
-It's a challenge to assemble a complete business strike set, especially in higher grades.
-Each coin still has intrinsic silver value.

 

It's too bad that you have a vision problem that prevents you from seeing the myriad toning patterns, not only on the Morgan, but most any other large silver coin.

Chris

 

off the subject but here is a link showing pictures of coins in movies. the "route 66" movie used Morgans. but the link has a list of movies with different coins. (movie props maybe) I thought it was interesting.


http://www.brianrxm.com/dirhtm/cnsmovie.htm

 

Morgans are popular series to collect, and has a great history in American coinage as well.

When I first bought Bower's book on Morgans, I couldn't put it down. Read it in about 4 hours.

 

I wouldn't say I'm fascinated with them, but I do like them. They are large silver coins, which I like. They are old, yet still easy to find in very high quality. Plus there are a bunch of dates that are very affordable. And they have an interesting history, despite the fact that they didn't circulate much.
And as for the Morgan's version of Lady Liberty being ugly, well, I've seen alot of coins that were IMO worse.

 

Dislikes: Most commonly collected era specific coin, commonly counterfeited

Likes: Got lots of newbies into the hobby, it's still cool as all get out to hold and feel a coin of that size, and it's an affordable coin to buy for its age

 

My favorite coin - I collect today only CARSON CITY MORGANS - like them. they give me that old wild west feeling.
:yes:

 

I neither love nor hate them. I'm fairly neutral on them.

 

Your right but that one cought my eye

 

Good point by BUncirculated. That book is a gem.

I'm guessing this article is the same argument Jordan details in his modern commem book, on why ASEs are similar to Morgans...

http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=25595&et_mid=572181&rid=232498916

from which I quote two points I don't think are here yet:

"6. Low population mintmarked issues that rule the huge set with an iron hand

"7. The marketing support of U.S. Mint."

Boy, that last one is telling, no?

 

I began a coin collection in the 1960s. I collected silver dollars and Mercury dimes. Morgans were still in circulation, though they were getting hard to get hold of. The Morgans were my favorite coins, though I had to sell them in 1980 so I could afford to move to Reno. It was so neat as a kid living in the 60s to have coins dating back into the 1800s. I still like Morgans.

 

Sorry to say it, but I am with Jason and do not care for Morgans at all. I find the eagle simplistic, and the obverse boring. I am not saying its not better than SL dollars, but still the coin design could have been much better. Look at the Cabillitos Mexican coin for what such a large silver coin COULD have been.

Then, they are so bloody common as to be boring. Give me a coin that is actually RARE, not "oh, the 81s might be common, but this one has a tiny die crack so that makes this one really rare!". Yawn, whatever.

 

Yeah, but in the 1960s, you could actually go to a bank and get a Morgan silver dollar for $1, until they started running out.

 

Morgans are nice coins, with a decent reverse design, but they wouldn't be considered my favorite coins.

 

There's nothing I'd enjoy more than a full collection of Morgans.

 

Maybe that is a large part of my problem. I have not one bone in my body any more that wishes to collect, (what is it about 70?), Morgans that are identical in every way except for a date or MM. None.

I would trade a full collection of Morgans off on 70 completely different coins so fast your head would spin.

 

I wish you had a full set and that I had 70 coins you'd trade them for.

 

My issue is they're talked about all the time, I think in a way I am spoiled with the internet, call it a curse and blessing all in one. Back in 1988, it was more meaningful to have these Morgan's, because I was less exposed to other folk's collections. Now these days, I have one mint state common date 1881-O for my 7070 Dansco, it's there out of necessity to make this thing feel more complete, but by no means am I in love with the thing.

 

Got it.

I would love to have been better at pool when younger; the game has always fascinated me.