Morgan Dollar Set Thoughts

funny that you mention this... I was looking at the PCGS price guide yesterday and some coins are priced higher in PO-1 than in G.

Everyman sets...

 

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01 are the holy grail for the low ball sets. 58s are the king of the Everyman sets with the 58+ being the unicorns everyone wants.

 

ahh, low ball... I sit corrected. Thank you, sir

 

Good timing on this thread. I just seriously started my Morgan quest. I call it a quest because I am focusing on dates I can attain in MS65 and still afford. Essentially I am going for all the common dates. I will attempt a run at CC's dated 81-85. Those will be my high end, with the 81 and 85 being my most expensive. Right now I am having fun getting all S dates from 79-82. I am half way there but may start going 66 on these.

 

There are several date/mm that are somewhat uncommon in well circulated condition. As Messy mentioned 98-O is one and is an empty hole for me at the moment. Others are '82-S, 96-P, 97-P, 98-P, 02-O and 04-O to list a few.

 

A date set would probably be more doable. A date and mintmark set will be quite expensive. I was just looking at putting a set of Morgan dollars together. After crunching numbers for date and mintmark coins, that was just not going to happen. I crunched numbers for one coin for each date. That set consists of 28 coins. This set will get you at least one coin from every mint except Carson City. One date can have a CC substituted in. 1882-CC, 1883-CC, and 1884-CC are the best candidates.

I crunched the numbers using the latest CoinWorld edition. CoinWorld seems to be in the middle with retail pricing. Of course all pricing is subjective.* I used MS-63 as a criteria. All coins had to be in MS-63 TPG plastic. Matching set.

Here is what I came up with. For ~$2300(retail) I could buy 25 of the 28 coins(graded)needed for the set. This included at least one coin from each mint. The 3 dates that are expensive are 1893, 1894, and of course 1895. If you spent another $2000 on those three coins you could pick up the 1893 or 1894 in MS63 and buy the other two in AU and EF. That would get you 26 of the 28 in MS-63 under $4500. Of course professional bargaining skills will make the set a little less.

 

When buying common dates in high grade, be sure to spend the time to choose coins that are really attractive. There are coins in 65, 66, and 67 holders that don't belong in those holders. I've seen 65s that belong in details holders. Auction lot viewing will really help you with this, as you can often lay out 10 1880-S in 66 side by side and pick the best two that are worthy of an extra $10. Instant advantage over every online bidder who hasn't seen coins in hand.

Absolutely agree with this. Even though an 81-S in 67 is relatively common and aren't going to go up in value due to their rarity, they can be stunning. You'll want to leave it on your desk to become distracted by it. Be choosy, though.

Yeah, I have an 1894 in at PCGS for crossover that the owner (not me) has invested a lot of grading fees in. Lowballs aren't for everyone, but if you like them, more power to you.

I would be remiss if I didn't also encourage finding coins to fit into your date set that were interesting and/or rare die varieties. 80-S has some overdates that aren't rare, 81-S has a couple with nice reverse die breaks that are worth premiums. 78-S had many dies touched up in San Francisco with various devices and materials, a practice for which the SF mint was eventually reprimanded a couple years later. 79-S through 82-S all have some repunched mint marks, too. The early CC coins are generally a mess, which variety collectors like.

 

Instead of trying to collect every Morgan dollar in very low grades, have you thought about focusing on Key dates, CC, S mint, P mint or S mint coins instead?

That way, you could put cash on the side and build it up to get an MS coin or Proof since the value will go up over time and it will not become boring over time?

Personally, I focus on key date O-mint coins. Instead of buying a $25-50 dollar coins every 2 weeks, or a month, I put money on the side an let it build to buy a $300-400 coin every 6 months. All depends on your budget too and what keeps you interested !

 

The OP said he wanted to collect a full set in mid-grade that he could afford but that not buying high end coins felt like cheating. I pointed out that people tend to give advise to only go after high grades and that caused the "cheating" mindset. There was some disagreement over that. And since then the thread has become suggestions on how to cut down or limit the collection to ones other than the set he wants to build in order to once again push for being able to buy high grade coins. This is why collectors, especially new collectors, get that mindset that if they don't collect high grade coins, what they have is junk.

 

I think this is an excellent point. I have been collecting and studying coins (Morgan's specifically) for over 20 years. I have never made a serious effort to put together a set because of the stigma that you must focus on high grade. I have several high grade examples, I'm very happy with that part of my collection. I will admit that I don't currently own a high grade CC Morgan, but I have in the past. What I want to do is assemble a complete set...and I think that focusing on lower grade problem free coins is the way I can do that.

It's interesting how this thread has evolved from that idea. haha.