Cleaned Silver Dollars

I got to thinking about this today at work. Are there more cleaned or original silver dollars floatng around out there?

Here's what brought it on. The boss has a rather big dealer coming in Saturday to buy some Morgans and Peace dollars in bulk. My boss can be kind of vague when assigning a job and never having met this dealer I'm not too sure how picky he is. I'm assuming not REAL picky as he is buying large quantities and will turn them fast.

Any way I was sorting a pile of 1921 Morgans, pre 21 Morgans and decent Peace Dollars. Better stuff and culls I'm kicking aside in separate piles. I'm pulling these out of a box that we toss them into after purchasing from walk ins for the most part.

I went through at least 1000 today so I'm doing this pretty fast as I'm waiting on customers up front (sorting in the back) to get these ready.

Now I am not a professinal grader but even perusing quickly I can spot a lot of cleaned coins. My observations?

LOTS of cleaned 1921 Morgans. Not really a surprise as we do buy "collections" and often times it will include a "rare Morgan Silver Dollar" from some magazine or TV ad. These are bought cheap by the sellers, buffed up and put in snappy display case.

Pre 1921 Morgans not as bad but still plenty that have taken a cleaning and oft times a harsh one. Same principle here. Many came from sets I would bet and sold to the uninformed at highly inflated prices.

The Peace Dollars really surprised me though honestly. SO many were cleaned. Now one has to realize when we buy these we pay X amount of dollar per coin. If it's better we put them aside immediately and the rest go into the box with just a glance.
I would have to say OVER half of the Peace dollars had been cleaned. That kind of surprised me actually.

Now I don't really collect either of the series' but if I did and was buying circulated I'd take the nice "dirty looking ones".

Just wanted to share that experience. Thoughts and opinions are welcome.

clembo

 

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stuff is coming out of the woodwork now that the economy has turned sour. And a lot of inexperienced collectors are dumping junk on the market that otherwise people don't play with or see. But they are dumping it for whatever they can get.

Bankruptcy court alone will dump a bunch of junk onto the market.

Ruben

 

A very good point Ruben and I do see this on a daily basis. Now I'm wondering when we'll start seeing some of the "good stuff" on a more regular basis.

 

I know somebody that inherited a collection and took cleaner to all of his coins, some of the Morgan's were CC. ( I cried a little on the inside)

 

In the 80's I personally scraped 4 or 5 mogans/peace with a silver knife to remove the toning. I was just a kid and my grandpa made me do it. Even then, after the first one, I told him we shouldn't be doing this but he made me anyway. On the other hand, the local consignment shop calls me when they have someone who wants to sell coins and I got a 1921 morgan for <$9. May have been dipped, or not. Still has full luster though, so not harshly. So for me it has been 5 harsh cleaned to 1 not. I would imagine many people are shining them up to try and get max value. Looking forward to the results of this thread.

 

its a good question. For our own skins, lets hope never that expereinced collectors start dumping high grade coins on the market, because that would mean its a terrible economy....far worse than now.

I would expect to see the registered MS70s to dive first.

 

MURDERER!

:loud:

 

HE MADE ME! :crying:Even then I knew it was wrong and didn't even know anything about coins. They are his, so....

 

No doubt and I don't see, and certainly hope, I don't see it. I do see some fairly nice raw uncs come in at times from people with knowledge of coins. That in itself is scary.

The high grade slabs I see are almost always modern, bullion coins actually. The person holding the MS63 1893-S Morgan knows better unless they are totally desperate.

That happens too. Shine them up, bring them in and be disappointed in what you are offered. It only takes one phone call to get a rough idea yet so many people neglect to make that call.

 

Concerning the high number of cleaned Peace Dollars.

I have been told and I don't know if it's an urban legend, but up until the mid-60's, you could go to the bank and ask for Silver Dollars and actually get them. In fact, banks actually ordered them specially for the holiday seasons.

So, if grandma gives you a Silver Dollar for Christmas and you're not a collector and grandma's not a collector, what are the chances that you or her clean it at some point.

I'm assuming they were giving out Peace Dollars more often than Morgans.

Of course, this could all be myth.

 

I don't know where banks would have ordered Peace Dollars from. They were no longer being minted and, as far as I know, there were no stockpiles of them at the Treasury.

In about 1965 my great-great-uncle was president of our local bank and he gave me 2 Peace Dollars (for a dollar apiece) that a lady had deposited at the bank. That's the only way that I know of that banks obtained Peace Dollars after about 1935.

 

i knew a guyt who would get cleaned morgan and peace and then sell them for melt but he never could get the dates i wanted for melt 1921 peace and some s morgans from the late eighties early nineties

 

why those dates?

 

I can remember as very young boy going to the bank with my dad and I got two silver dollars with the change I had. The funny part I know now they were morgan dollars. The reason I was so impressed with them was because they were from the 1800's. I guess I wasn't that impressed because I spent them for ice cream or something along the way and the change I got them with was silver coins minus any pennies I had. Strange I remember that these were morgans.

 

Since posting my original remark, I've googled the "getting Silver Dollars at the bank" line and there are lots of comments such as Coin Lovers. From personal experience, my cousins used to get Silver Dollars on their birthdays from my Aunt and Uncle.

We keep forgetting that a Silver Dollar was nothing special (in terms of metal value) in say, 1960. "Real" silver dollars were used in casinos. The $1 face value was the approximate value of the silver and in addition, there weren't 20 places in town to turn in the Silver Dollar for its silver content.

It was special because it was big, it reminded people of the "old days" and it had sentimental value. Hence, a popular choice for people to give away on birthdays and holidays.

 

During my collecting "hey-day" of the mid to late 50's, my grandmother would go to the bank, give them $100 cash, get a full bag of 100 silver dollars, and bring them home for me to search. She would then return the bag, the bank would count them, any shortages were replaced with cash, and the whole process repeated. They had bags and bags of silver dollars, ninety-five percent Peace Dollars. I believe this was before the Morgan hoard was "found".

 

I use to go to the bank on a regular basis when I was younger and broke in the mid 60's and they almost always had silver dollars. This was a very small bank.

 

I prefer collecting circulated morgans because I like the prices and like the variety provided by circulated vs uncirculated coins [just a personal preference]. I don't quite look for "dirty" coins but I definitely look for a somewhat even grey toning over original surfaces. As far as my ability permits, I avoid cleaned and "blast white" coins.

 

So we all agree there are a lot of cleaned coins out there, so the wining strategy is only buy raw coins on line for melt, or buy graded coins that are graded by the top 3! If your looking to build a set of raw coins in hand is your safest bet!