Hi all, I haven't posted in a while and if this subject has been brought up recently, please except my apologies. My freind, who runs a local coin shop recently called to tell me he got in some nice Morgans and is holding them for me to look at. I have been collecting halves and pennies and just a short time ago mentioned to him I was thinking of jumping into Morgans a little. Here is my question: can anybody recomend a nice website that I can do a little research at before I go, as I know nothing about them, nor do I know what he has to offer? I am at work right now, I will look for any responses when I arrive home. thanks for any replies JD
Get the redbook on Morgan dollars (Complete Guide to Morgan Dollars). Published by Whitman. Written by QD Bowers. Not a website, but it is a great guide for the beginner...Mike
You can try this for starters - Click Here But there is so much to learn about Mo0rgans that you will never find it all on one site. As has been suggested, the book is much better.
I read the book on Morgan dollars and came away disappointed. I'm not sure what I was looking for or expecting, but somehow the book just wasn't giving me the information I needed or wanted. Maybe I expected some insightful advice on short sets. Maybe I expected some sort of surprise info on underappreciated pieces. Maybe it was just too predictable - buy one of everything in the highest grade you can afford. Nevertheless, it's a pretty good review of each date and mintmark and for that reason is worth the money if you plan to spend any significant sum on the coins.
In addition to the Wikipedia, there are PCGS and CoinFacts and CoinResource ... and ... http://www.pcgs.com/prices/frame.chtml?type=date&filename=morgan_regular http://www.coinfacts.com/silver_dollars/morgan_dollars/morgan_silver_dollars.html http://www.coinresource.com/guide/photograde/pg_$1Morgan.htm ... after a while, you read the same thing over and over about Silver Dick Bland and his Buzzard Dollar, Anna Williams, and George Morgan... : http://www.tulving.com/$1morgan.html Personally, I consider the Morgan Dollar to be one of the coins that any collector can own just one of because if you have seen one, you've seen them all. An XF Morgan Dollar is worth 70% of spot silver, but people bid them up and the market is always right. The baby-faced school teacher and the big spread eagle are as easy to understand as the Golden Arches of MacDonald's. Put "Morgan Dollar" into the ANS Library search and you get a quick 104 articles, including these: Fahey, Michael. New counterfeit morgan dollar discovered. Iddings, John. The pros and cons of Morgan investing. Fahey, Michael. Fake 1893-O Morgan dollar needs careful examination. Desrochers, Euclide C. Morgan dollar die varieties. (1966) Van Ryzin, Robert R. The Morgan dollar mystique. (1995) Taylor, Lester. The economics of Morgan dollars. (1989) Taylor, Lester. The high years of silver : the minting of the Morgan dollar, 1878-1921. (1984) Van Allen, Leroy. Dollar specalists discover first Morgan. (1980) White, Weimar W. A profile of prooflike Morgan dollars. (1994)
I can't understand why pure collectors frequently value coins below the melt value of the bullion content, but as an investor I'm glad they do. Sometimes this seems to happen because a coin is common and shows signs of wear. Sometimes it happens when the offensive coins has received the dreaded "cleaned" label that seemingly turns it into the equivalent of a lump of clay. Assuming a coin has no numismatic value, it should be "worth" the intrinsic value of the metal content plus a small premium for having been struck in coin form to eliminate the need to assay [in my opinion]. I think that sometimes collectors are too close to the trees to see the forest. Hopefully, this will continue. That said, I'd love to buy a batch of XF Morgan dollars for $6 but I don't think it will happen.
It's not that hard to understand really. Just about anyone who buys a coin wants to be able to expect to sell it for a small profit if the need arises. And since about the best you can get for junk silver is 10% - 15% less than spot by selling to a dealer - most collectors who know this aren't willing to spend more than 70% of spot. At best they might pay 80%.
What I found most useful is how it tells you by each year, what the strikes are like. It's really helped me when trying to grade raw coins.
