Thoughts on cracking out Carson City Morgans

Hello!

I have recently acquired four new Carson City dollars for my date and mint-mark collection of Morgan dollars. They are all slabbed and graded in the 63-65 range.

My collection is stored in Dansco-folders and I love seeing my collection grow by filling the holes one by one. I am also in the long-run for these and not planning on selling them anytime soon - except when upgrading.

I have bought both raw and slabbed coins and occasionally cracked a slab or two to fill the album with high grade items. I crack them carefully and use gloves when handling the MS-items.

But after purchasing these last four:
- 1878-CC MS63
- 1884-CC MS65
- 1885-CC MS65
- 1891-CC MS63

..I feel like I need to think one extra time before cracking them out due to the relatively higher value of these items compared to my earlier acquisitions.

My heart says crack'em - but my brain says "re-think it" or "wait". So I have made a little list of pro's and con's regarding cracking them out.

Pro's:
- Keeps the collection organized in one place
- Love seeing the collection grow one-by-one when stored in the same place
- I can always re-slab later if planning on selling or for storage in new format
- Not a big fan of slabs as storage in general and like to handle my coins raw (although I appreciate purchasing them in slabs to ensure authenticity/grade).
- Dansco-storage might cause unwanted toning

Con's:
- I could hurt or damage the coin during cracking
- I could hurt or damage the coin during storage in Dansco (wanting to take them out and "play" with them).
- Re-slabbing might yield a lower grade
- Harder to sell at good price if raw (if deciding to sell before re-slabbing).


In my situation - what would you have done? Or have you been having the same dilemma yourself?

Thanks for any comments!

Lars

 

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In my opinion dansco albums are not a good place to store coins. my quarters and Sac dollars and presidential dollars have toned and not in a good way in dansco albums. you might hurt the coins cracking them out. if they are slabbed and graded they will be safer there and you'll have better chance of getting a good price on them when you go to sell them if you choose to do so. Keep them slabbed. high grade CC's wow. I would do everything to protect them by keeping them slabbed.

 

Thanks for the tip! That could be an option to fulfill my desire of having them all organized in the same way

 

Twenty years ago, I was cracking slabs for Danscos. Today I see it as a big mistake. It was a big waste of money.

 

An empty hole in a coin album makes the ADD portion of my brain explode.... However given the grades you refer to... I absolutely would not remove them from their slabs. There will come a time in your life or your families life that those coins will have to go back to market. It may be difficult to convince a potential buyer that those coins were once professionally graded at the levels you referred to. I would have to plug the holes with lesser quality coins. But that's just me.

 

How much do you trust non certified holders like the ones you linked to?

 

Another vote against the Dansco. Those CCs are too nice to risk it.

As for the OCD need to have things organized (yeah, we get that!) Lord M's solution is an excellent one, and one you'll probably be happier with in the long run.

 

An option you could explore would be to have your slabbed coins imaged and then have 1:1 prints made of the coin. You could take the photo and mount the obverse and reverse to some corrugated cardboard, cut it out and place the photos in the slots of your Dansco. You then keep your high value coins safe in the holder and have the hole filled in your album. I realize it's not the same as having the actual coin in the album, but...

 

I rarely buy slabbed coins, but the CC Morgans would be one of the few I buy slabbed. I'd keep them in a slab. Take a picture and put that picture in the Dansco instead to fill the hole.

 

Don’t crack out your CC Morgans. Your reasons not to do so carry the argument, IMHO.

 

Slabs stink. Only cuz i aints gots nun

 

nope, I too would not crack them out! If anything buy lower grade circulated ones, but at such high grade, don't crack them

 

Crack 'em. Then call me when you want to sell. I love a bargain.

 

Thanks for sympathy with the OCD-aspect of this....and good point with selling...my argument against that was that I would be able to re-slab at some point - but if I wait too long until i'm old, decrepit or dead...hehe...my family might start tamper with it...so I might end up keeping them in plastic for now

 

Haha..best and most creative solution to my whole dilemma...Cant believe I havent though of that. I might actually do that. Hopefully I will end up with a Dansco-album full of card-board discs and the safety deposit box full of graded high-grade morgans