Rare morgan dollars~

Had an impressive collection come into the store today. LOTS of Morgans, most of which the boss purchased. They guy that sold them is married to my boss' Calculus professor from college.
The boss graduated in 1964 I believe so this was an older gentleman with coins bought many years ago.

4 coins are being sent in for grading (my boss does not own these as of yet).

Two of the coins being slabbed are rather tough to find. Those would be the 1893-S Morgans. At a glance I'd put them at VF30 to XF40.
At a glance I also put them as harshly cleaned. OUCH!!!
At a glance I'd also put the 1894 at roughly the same grade and also harshly cleaned.

FINALLY, at a glance, I'd put the other 1894 at VG but ORIGINAL. Hey, one out of four ain't bad.

I figure the boss will most likely end up owning these coins when they get back from ANACS. He'll own them for far less than he would have if they HADN'T been cleaned.
He'll also sell them for far less than original coins.

I reiterate. OUCH!!!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Marriage made in heaven......

 

I am a novice at cleaned coins but it seems that more often than not a cleaned coin gets picked out quite easily. Why do people do this if all they are going to do is lower the value of a coin?

 

I believe NGC is now grading problem coins with a details grade...

 

Still some very cool Morgans Clembo!

 

Usually because they don't know it will lower the value of the coin. Inexperienced collectors tend to think that bright and shiny is best, so whether they rub the coin with a wire brush, or soak it in silver dip for way to long, they think their actually improving the coins appearance. Many new collectors can't tell the difference between an original uncirculated coin with nice mint luster, and a heavily circulated coin that's been cleaned. Both are shiny, and "new" looking.

 

wow, that hurts

 

The other thing, which is probably what happened here, is that it wasn't considered necessarily bad to clean coins a few decades ago. Since it seems from the original post that this would be when the person purchased them, they were probably cleaned before cleaning was considered "bad."

 

That is great to come across those tough dates, too bad about the cleaning. Then again, a slightly abused coin makes it a little easier for some of us to afford scarcer dates.

 

Good point.

 

your title is an oxymoron--there are no rare Morgans with possible exception of the 1895.

 

That's right. Many of us remember the time when the Blue Book suggested two methods of cleaning coins... baking soda and a pencil eraser !

I personally tried both. Oh, it'll make 'em nice and shiny all right ... :headbang:

 

My bad. Would scarce work for you?

 

How are there no rare Morgans?

 

My "Coin Collecting Kit" from the Sears Wish book came with a nice cleaning paste and Nic-A-Date. Still got my shined up 1851 large cent ater 40 years and it still looks horrible.

As for the coins in question I"m sure they were cleaned when the guy bought them. Still in the original 2x2s with prices on them. Prices were in the mid $500 range for the 93-s'. Pretty sure it was a few years ago.

 

It is a mater of definition. To me, if there are more than 100 of 'em, they ain't rare. You can buy any or all the of the Morgans in quantity at any national coin show.

 

So true. Could you afford them all at any national coin show?

 

I agree it's a matter of definition. As a VAM collector, I own several rare, scarce, and very scarce Morgan dollars.

 

Sure, if you settle for a mid-grade circulated set w/o 1895 PF you are in all day for around $12-16K

 

How rare? I have an 1895 O.