Some questions and some advice needed from my knowledgable forum friends!

I am new to key date Morgan and Peace Dollar collecting. My first question is: In searching ebay and other dealers for 1879 CC (both capped and clear mint marks) and 1889 CC Morgans, I have found many AU's, which I might be able to afford, but virtually all have been lightly cleaned or polished, and I was wondering if such "doctoring" would affect the future price of these coins in a negative way? Right now, solid BU's (MS 63 and up) NOT cleaned are just a bit out of line for me price wise. So, in conjunction with my first question, would I be better to collect a cleaned, graded AU (or even a genuine raw AU) from a reputable, fully-disclosing detail dealer, or shoot for a solid graded or non-graded XF 45 for only slightly less money, which is disclosed by the same reputable dealer or third party grading service as not "doctored" or cleaned?

I apologize for not doing a very good job of wording my above questions. I am mainly a collector of modern coins, and have mostly complete sets of U. S. 19'th and 20'th Century coins, with several exceptions. I just started collecting Morgan and Peace Dollars, and am presently working on a complete CC set of Morgans, and as close to BU Peace Dollars as I can afford. I am now retired, and though collecting is my main interest, as I grow older I will need to think of my collection as an investment too. I just wonder what you guys think about the questions I've asked, and would appreciate any advice to help me meet the collecting/investing goals herein described.

Thanks to everyone in advance for your kind advice and expertise!

 

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First of all, when it comes to key dates in the Morgan series, I encourage you to try to avoid raw coins completely. Even if they are from a reputable dealer, there is still the risk of buying a counterfeit, and China is getting very, very good at producing them. Just recently, a very well-known and respected dealer "shopped" some known counterfeits to other dealers (without telling them) at a MAJOR show, and nearly all of them were fooled by them.

One of the reasons for this is that at least one of the Chinese counterfeiters is known to be using the very same equipment that the US Mint used to produce them. This equipment was given to China by the US when they were building their own mint facility in Shanghai back in the 20's. Decades later, when China was modernizing their mint, the equipment was sold for scrap and a few enterprising businessmen bought and refurbished the equipment sometime in the 90's.

It's not unusual to see key dates with problems sell at major auctions because there are many collectors who simply can't afford the prices of problem-free specimens and they want to try to build a matched set even if it means they have to resort to a problem coin. That's a decision that only you can make.

Chris

 

Cleaned coins will never have the value of a original coin. In key date coins you should always buy PCGS or NGC slabbed coins. All key dates have been counterfeited so many times I think anyone buying key dates should buy slabbed coin only. I have been sold counterfeit coins buy good dealers who had been fooled. So if you want to trust anyone, trust PCGS, NGC, ANACS when it comes to key date coins. Jim

 

Thanks for your great advice, cmp9ball and Boxeldercoin! I definitely intend to follow it!!

 

Just curious, would you trust an 1879 CC, ICG-graded as original (uncleaned or altered) XF 45 coin? Ebay has apparently approved ICG as an accepted third party grading service, so that sellers may advertise coins as having been graded by ICG. I know very little about them, but heard a couple of years ago that they had hired quite a few former ANACS graders away from that service. Also, PCI is now operating as DGS (Dominion Grading Service) out of Virginia I believe.