If this Morgan toner had straight graded what do you think it would be worth?

I haven't heard that name in a while.

 

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I feel the color looks natural. But getting it in a straight holder could be a challenge. But there’s lots of money on the table if it grades straight

 

I think it is worth a couple of crack out attempts. Risk vs Reward.

 

Ok, tell me the color palate looks more artificial than this celebrated toner:

 

Could you elaborate for us crackout and Morgan novices ?

 

The idea is that a straight grade would be worth a lot more. The next best 1890-S toned Morgan that I’ve seen (PCGS ms 64+ without CAC) recently sold for $1,880 on Legend. This one is likely a 63 or 64 (if it ever could get graded) and has much nice color. It would beat the result of that coin and could bring moon money if a few motivated Morgan toned collectors battled for it in an auction.

As it stands in the details holder, many consider it not worth much more than a generic UNC details example. I value it in the 750-1K range (but ownership adds a bit of bias; I’ve had two offers for it that were several hundred below my minimum range).

As previously mentioned, I tried grading it twice: once at PCGS and once at NGC. My grading fees have already approached a bit over $100 (both gradings were at shows, where I’ve heard people have better luck: the PCGS one was fairly pricey at ~70 while NGC was more reasonable at ~30 due to a special offer they ran at the ANA show). Someone suggested trying Anacs as well. I’m not sure since they can be even more conservative (although that might be in terms of grade rather than color). I could also try PCGS or NGC again but I’m hesitant to spend the money on their costlier services (plus have to wait a long time with the current long turnaround).

 

I would give it a last shot at ANACS. I find that they are more conservative on grade, but less likely to detail it for color. They are also cheaper, and one more crack out would probably be worth the shot. I posted the Moose together with it, and I see the toning pattern as similar. People are welcome to disagree with me, but most know how successful I have been at buying and selling toned Morgan’s, including high end ones. I would bet that you might get it to slip by as a MS 63 at ANACS, and then, it is a coin that starts at $2500 for color, and would likely sell for $5,000, even in an ANACS holder.

 

Wow ....and to think, I believe years ago when toning first got noticed it was considered a bad thing, right ?

 

In the "old days" most would dip out toned coins as blast white was favored. By the early 2000s (maybe even the 1990s), toning was already gaining steam. The prices generally fell off around the 2008/2009 crash but the coins remained popular. There was a steady growth afterwards. The 2020 to current era has seen fairly large growth in pricing and even more players jumping in (as has been the case with many segments of the coin market).

 

You couldn't find me happier about the situation,
I love a good original looking coin. If you can find modern silvers with original environmental toning than you can have a Morgan in the same time period grow to be a monster. IMO

 

By growth, I meant more collectors have been seeking these toners out (demand side expanding) and so the prices increase. I was not implying that the coins have developed more toning in this period. It is certainly true that the supply of toners has increased too in order to meet the demand (especially among moderns that have been store in favorable conditions or even artificially enhanced). What I doubt is that the supply of monster toned Morgans has increased much lately (unless people have perfected accelerating the bag toning method).

 

I believe you can thank the newcomers to our hobby for those price boosts.

Except for the monster pricey toned coins, alot of the newcomers who can't afford gold coins or expensive Morgans have taken to the toned Morgans, along with medium-grade Large Denomination Currency (high-grades cost 2-3x as much). With the Covid checks in 2020 and 2021, they gravitated towards "affordable luxury" and liked toned Morgans.

There's been a few articles talking about how the folks who can't spend thousands are OK with spending hundreds on stuff and jacking up the demand and price.

 

I read you.

I still think that the coin was dipped.
Maybe a VkurtBellman special.

 

I think it’s a combination of newcomers, people who used to be strictly bullion stackers, and collectors who saw prices on toners going up and decided to join the action (like any item that attracts attention as prices increase).

And I agree that there is a group that entered who is ok spending hundreds on something with a pretty look that used to sell for a fraction (because it’s not easy to make that same money work to buy the 1K+ coins).

 

Are you of the opinion that most/all of the toned (esp. "monster" toned) Morgans we see were toned artificially ?

 

This is old school and represented the school of thought that any toning was merely the first step of corrosion. Acceptance of toning has certainly changed, but the chemistry has not.

 

But dipping with poor technique ruined many a coins luster trying to rid it of toning when toning detracted from it's market value.

The toning/no toning cycle really makes me feel my age.