GSA Holder Morgans

Very good question that I get asked a lot, I am not sure if you know or not but the GSA coins had laid undisturbed in Treasury and Federal Reserve vaults, serving primarily as a backing for silver certificates. When, in 1935, Congress changed the written obligation appearing on silver certificates so that the notes could be redeemed “in silver” instead of in “silver dollars,” production of these coins ceased. Only in the far western states were silver dollars used in daily commerce. Even collectors showed little interest in Morgan Silver Dollars and Peace Dollars.

Starting about 1958, however, the number of silver dollars being withdrawn from government vaults increased annually, reaching a fever pitch in 1963-64. In November 1962, during an annual distribution, it was discovered that there were some rare and valuable dates, still sealed in their original mint bags, all in uncirculated condition, among the millions of dollar coins still in the Treasury vaults.

Following the discovery of previously scarce dates. Collectors/investors/dealers lined up to purchase them in $1,000 bags, trading silver certificates for the coins.

Lines stretching for blocks formed around the Treasury Department headquarters in Washington, as speculators bought up silver certificates to redeem them for $1000 bags of “cartwheels.” In March of 1964 the Treasury, after having discovered many bags of scarce “CC” dollars, stopped redeeming silver certificates with silver dollars, offering bars or granules in their place. After June 24, 1968 the redemption of silver certificates in silver ceased altogether, though the notes remain legal tender to this day.

The Treasury then inventoried its remaining stock of dollar coins, and found approximately 3,000 bags containing three million coins. Many of the remaining coins were Carson City Mint morgan silver dollars, which even then carried a premium. These coins were turned over to the General Services Administration (GSA) for sorting , marketing and disposal at a profit to the government. The GSA sorted the coins into several categories, the most populous of which was the “Uncirculated CC” and in a series of sales lasting from 1973 to 1980, the dollar hoard was dispersed via auction and fixed prices.

Five sales were conducted in 1973 and 1974, but sales were poor, and the results unspectacular. There was much complaining among the coin buying public, many stating that the United States Government should not be in the “coin business”, especially considering that the government had spent little more than a dollar to mint and store each coin. After these sales, more than a million coins were still left unsold.

This remaining hoard, mostly Morgan SilverDollars minted at Carson City (CC) sat until 1979-1980, where, amidst an extraordinarily volatile precious metals market, the remaining coins were sold under chaotic conditions. The GSA, having published minimum bids in November 1979, announced on January 2, 1980, that those minimum bids were no longer valid, and that prospective bidders would have to “call in” to a toll free number to get current minimum bids. Then, on February 21, 13 days after the bidding process officially began, the maximum number of coins per bidder was changed from 500 to 35. Many bidders, under these confusing conditions, ended up with no coins at all. Complaints again flooded in to Congress, but the damage had already been done, and the last silver dollars held by the United States Treasury were gone. Sealed in rigid plastic holders and boxed with a message from then-President Richard M. Nixon, these silver dollars account for most of the mint state CC Morgans known today. There are a few good books I can recommend too

 

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Please go ahead and recommend your top 3 books on GSA Morgans. Thanks!

 

OP, I think your 1883 CC has a shot at MS65.

 

Not a very good rewrite of Wikipedia, Ed.

 

Hey Ed's back.....

 

To help me better understand the grading shelves in this upper echelon could you explain what separates and compare what you find in an MS64 vs MS64+ vs MS65 with the Morgans? And what the 82 and 84 have or lack that separates it? I know this is a googleable question but I’d rather learn from those with experience that I’ve witnessed.

 

You'll retain more if you meet this challenge on your own, but I will tell you #1: Morgan's are graded with more emphasis placed on their obverses rather than reverses. And #2: focus on the cheek and other focal areas. Lack of disturbances (luster breaks and bag marks) will bring a coins grade up.

 

It's near-impossible to impart a visual skill on a written basis. Grading is experiential, not textbook. You can, to an extent, describe the various circulated grades - in issue-specific manner - by defining features which will or will not still be present, but Mint State coins grade by comparison to each other and not feature landmarks since they all still have all the features. Start with a look at the PCGS Grading Standards page:

https://www.pcgs.com/grades

It's not flawless, but it's a good foundation especially for Morgans. The place where the written interaction becomes useful is in the discussion of multiple specific coins over time, so you can form a larger body of knowledge and experience.

I see your three coins (your images are quite worthy ) as MS62 for the 1884, MS63 for the 1882 and I tend to agree with C-B-D that the 1883 has a shot at MS65. The specific reason for this is the dark color of the mark on the cheek; experience tells me that darkness indicates a lesser visual imposition than the marks visible on the other coins, which are deep enough to directly reflect light back to the lens and are therefore "brighter" in the images. That "dark" mark isn't of sufficient depth to reflect light, and is likely more just a disturbance of the original Mint "frost" (a potentially misleading term since a coin doesn't have to be particularly "frosty" to retain the finish the die initially imparted to it).

Like the overwhelming majority of Morgans, these three are all obverse-limited with very nice reverses. Morgans have the huge expanse of cheek and broad fields on the obverse, which tend to accentuate marks which can be hidden (and to an extent prevented) by the complex details on the reverse.

There. That's the first written interaction on the road to learning to grade.

 

Very nice Dave!! That's exactly what I was just about to write. Haha..

It really comes down to this, I can't describe what it looks like, but I know it when I see it. Once you've seen a lot of graded coins, you develop a feeling of how other coins within that series will grade. It's not so much a science as it is an art of educated opinion. And just so you know, not all graders see the same coin at the same grade. Which is why there typically are two graders and a finalizer involved with a majority of the coins being graded today.

 

I own several GSA Morgans graded by NGC. I really like the way they do these coins. Overall, a cool presentation, IMO. Authenticity is of course not a real question in a GSA holder, as noted above, but in the larger, overall, market, I bet that (on average) an NGC 64 will still sell for more than one ungraded - and probably by enough to cover the fee. No empirical data to prove this, but that is my gut feel after having bought and sold and seen a lot of these over the years.

 

Except for the fake GSA hardpacks that were discovered by ICG a couple years ago...

 

Thanks Dave that’s very helpful. I know grading is more about how the collective feels about appearance rather than a formula I just wish there was a formula and that it was less subjective. Morgans seem to be the coin to learn grading with (most used as example) so I’m glad to have a couple examples in the MS range to study in hand now.

 

Are they accompanied by COAs and a box or just the “GSA srab”?

 

Dunno. I think they had boxes and COA's from real ones, though. If memory serves...

 

Yeah you can buy COAs they aren't tied to specific coins in any way other than the date in the first two digits.

 

Good point and that’s good to know.

 

So I found an eBay article from Sept2013 that gave the differences in the holders they were finding then...

The Counterfeit Holder;
A: The insert is made of black paper or card board & is smooth, not textured at all. [may be a bit lighter than the real insert.]
B: There is no insert tab on the top left of the front side of the holder.
C: There is no small round spot at the top front center of the holder.
D: The Lettering is "Dull" & doesn't have the real "Chrome" look to it. Other than that, the lettering is in the correct area.
E: The "Holder" may be able to be opened by hand.