New to posting here, been lurking for quite some time. Anyway, I figure with the rising silver bullion premiums, I'd take some time off from stacking ASE and such and focusing on building a small collection of graded Carson City Morgans. I know these are not cheap and of course I want the most coin for my $. I was looking at starting out with the more reasonably priced 1883 or 1884 CC in MS64 or 65 condition. What is everyone's thoughts on these as a starting point? Are there any CC Morgans that are generally thought to be slightly underpriced/underrated in the current market or vice versa? Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks! -Joe
Hey Joe, and welcome to the forums. I too lurked before needing to be able to ask a few Q's myself. Below is a link to help you with what I find to be the most important aspect of numismatic collecting behind "coin grade"....mintage. http://morgandollars.net/morgan-dollar-mintage/ I would reckon the 1890 CC would be the cheapest entry level year due to it's higher mintage...but I am not big on graded silver. Personally, the way my investing and collecting has blended is as such. I put together sets of Maples and Eagles, one of every year. I also invest in poured silver bars. I like these for two reasons, 1)they are pretty cheap over spot (if you dont buy on feeBay) and 2)I like the aesthetic appearance. And this raises a good point. If you are doing this as an investment, I cannot advise you to continue. If you are doing it because you just have a little man in your head that says "Joe, you need to buy graded morgan dollars, they are super pretty and shiny" then by all means go for it, but be responsible and know that it is for collecting purposes and not an investment. My investment in PMs is basically poured silver bars. The crossover between investment and collecting is my tubes of sequential year maples and eagles. My numismatic collection is basically made of canadian releases that relate to maples (is the piedfort, maple of hope, 25th anniversary maple etc etc) as well as eagle sets (2006, 2011, 2012 and soon to be 2013). The only gold I collect is NGC-MS70 eagles, however, I will admit I only recently got into gold and have not really made a large dent. I buy graded gold because I am always nervous of counterfeits. Hope that helps.
That is a huge help! Thanks for the link as well. As far as my intentions, basically, I'd like to diversify my stack a little with some numis to add to my silver bullion as well as the little gold I have. They are very pretty and shiny! Also, I view it as sort of a hedge to bullion dipping further despite physical silver maintaining its price these past few weeks. In the unlikely instance silver drops to under $20 or even under $15, my thinking is that CC Morgans should hold up. I may be wrong and now I sound speculative haha
NO, the 1890 CC is definitely NOT the cheapest. The 1882cc, 1883cc, and 1884cc are the cheapest, as they were GSA hoarded extensively, and can be had for very little. I'd go with a MS 64 instead, as the 65s are quite a bit more, and don't return as much resale than a very clean 64.
Joe...listen to morgandude. I had completely forgotten about that fancy fact. Mintage is always important but with Morgans there is a little twist with the CC govt hoard and dump.
I'm in the same boat as OP and have been looking around for a good place to pick up the CC morgans. What do you guys think about the GSA black holders? Yeah or nay? I was personally thinking about trying to stick with ms63, but who knows. I may try to go for the 81cc or 85cc for my first, but then again, you can picked up two of the 82-84 for that price. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
The GSA encapsulated CC coins have a very eager following, and tend to sell for better prices than the same condition date in a PCGS or NGC slab. They have a following, especially if the coins have the original box and COA. I have 6 GSAs, and am rather fond of them--there isn't much price difference between the 63 and 64 grade for the common dates. Also popular is the GSA CCs, with the NGC grade ribbon on them--they are even more collectable.
Yes, i definitely like the gsa holders with the certification ribbon. Morgandude, not sure where in fl you are but if you have any recommendations for coin shops in the St. Pete or Tampa area, I'd like to hear. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I have had a lot of luck collecting, buying, and selling CC dollars. I started out buying some GSA's in the 82-84 years. They are theeasiest to find and generally most reasonable. It is all about condition. Ihave bought 20+ 82-84 GSA's at a time before from dealers. They seem tofluctuate quite a bit. If you know what you are looking for, there are stilllots of ungraded GSA dollars out there worth the money in high grades. When itcomes to the other dates such as 1878, 1880, 1881, and 1885 are all in the$500+ club. The 1885 has trended upward significantly over the last 2 years.Whenever I am at a show I always check out all the GSA's. The last GSA coin Ibought was an 1878 in the soft pack which was graded MS-64 NGC. Soft pack GSA'sare almost a whole other story when collecting. You can get the less common dates in non-GSA packaging a lot easier. While80-85's are similar in pricing to GSA coins, 1878's are sometimes reasonable aswell, followed by the 90 and 91. You can sometimes catch some deals on the 78,90, and 91 if you shop around enough. I really like Carson City dollars and as mentioned before have had very goodluck with them. My only regret is not buying some of the coins I have passed onin the last few years. However, they are a lot like every other coin in thecollecting realm. There is the good, bad, and ugly on every type of coin. Iwould recommend to anyone always buy nice coins that are reasonable when yousee them, as you will probably not have another chance at the coin or at thatprice.
Beg to differ. The 90 and 90 were not GSA hoarded in great quantities, and tend to be quite a bit pricier. I've been collecting them for years, and they're getting more and more expensive, whereas the 82,83 and 84s are remaining pretty constant. If one wants good collectability at a reasonable price ($500-600 each) the 80, 81, and 85 are the best bet, as they were low mintages, and have been appreciating. Despite decent GSA availability, they are much better dates for collection. I have all 13, 12 of which are MS ( you can guess which one isn't).
I guess I don't understand what you are begging to differ. When I noted "less common dates in non-GSA packaging a lot easier", means you can't find them in GSA packaging as easy as graded or raw. You can often find the 90 and 91 coins in MS60-MS62 for under $500, where as the 1885, near $600 is the floor for any MS coin.
A decent (MS 63 or better ) 90 or 91 will cost you $1000. So, I think you need to be aware of prices nowadays. I'd never recommend the purchase of any raw CC dollar, as they are so often altered or counterfeited. Up to you what you buy, but those aren't particularly easy dates--that is what I beg to differ about. Mintages are not always the issue with CC dollars.
I agree, I do not recommend purchasing any CC dollars unless you know what you are looking at, especially rare dates. They are not easy dates and even harder dates in GSA packaging. I agree, mintage is not everything. Perfect example of 85's, there are a lot more MS coins because of the GSA. Most of the 90 & 91's I think went directly in to circulation. Regardless, I believe they are some of the best coins to collect. I like the PL and DMPL CC dollars as well. The varieties of the 1900 O/CC are also very interesting and I enjoy looking for those.
I'll side with the comments the 82-84 CC's have been hovering around the same price range for the last couple of years. I bought mine for $220 at the end of 2010. It's toning a golden color very nicely inside its GSA holder.
Price range of easily obtained CC dollars (excluding the three really tough and key dates): 1878CC--$600-800, 1880CC-$500-800, 1881CC-$500-800, 1882CC-$250-300, 1883CC-$250-300, 1884CC-250-300, 1885CC--$600-900 (this one has been appreciating recently). This is an approximate range for the commonly available ones. The 90s are rarer, and more pricey in decent MS condition.
I'd buy every one you can find for $1,000. Posted bids for uncertified 91 CC's in GSA Cases are $1,650 Posted bids for uncertified 90 CC's in GSA Cases are $1,900 A pair of NGC stickered 1891 CC MS62's both cleared $2,750 recently on ebay. A NGC stickered 1890 CC MS62 brought $3,250 on ebay. Not to mention that the original cards are selling for $200-$300 alone for those dates.
Well, I pulled the trigger on one. Got an 1883 NGC MS65. Will post pictures soon. Might have paid a little much but it looks great =)
Oh, I know--this was what I was trying to get across to the folks that thought that the 90 and 91 cc dates are easy--NONE of those are low priced, as they weren't hoarded. I paid that for my 90 and 91 a few years ago.
I remember when they were $1,000.... Wish I had bought a lot more then I did. The only reason those numbers are so fresh to me is that I have one of each right now and was just researching them this morning. HAHA!
