Ive been buying 1880-o Morgans. Its a nice semi-key date. CC Morgans are out of my budget. Question is: if theres a long-term upward trend in coin prices, should I be focusing on trying to buy a few key dates, like a rare CC date or mybe a graded 1893? For purposes of investment, do you place any urgency on a collection having a few rare dates? everythings relative, Ive always felt. A $50 coin becomes a $100 coin. A $200 coin becomes a $400 coin, etcetera.
Remember, there can only be so many complete sets of Morgan dollars. You are essentially limited by the number of remaining examples of the rarest piece. Some pieces are pretty scarce, and it is likely that only a few thousand sets of Morgans could be ever be assembled (I'm guessing that only a few thousand examples of the 1893s survive - if you count the 1895p then only a few hundred complete Morgan sets can be assembled!). Look at it from the perspective of supply and demand - a complete set of Morgan dollars requires one of each coin, so the demand from people collecting full sets is the same for each date/mintmark, but the supply (number of coins) is vastly different. Increasing the number of collectors will have little affect on common dates like the 1881s, 1886p, etc. but a huge affect on the key dates like the CC's and the 1893s. So if I was trying to invest in Morgans, I would definently shoot for the key dates and semi-key dates. I think that the grade rarities are more of a fad though, so I would probably stick with nice, original XF-MS63 examples of some of the more rare dates. I might also look at the proofs too - mintages of about 1,000 or so per year, and demand is only going to grow. But that's just me, if I was you I would come to your own conclusions first before buying.
Personally, I would invest in Morgan dollars or any silver or gold coins while precious metal prices are on a downward trend. Right now is a geat time in my opinion to buy. CC Morgan dollars arent going to get much, if any, cheaper than they are right now. Unfortunately, none of us in here can predict what silver and gold prices are going to be in the future. As a habit I've gotten myself into lately is buying the more expensive key dates first then working on the semi-keys and commons. If silver ever skyrockets again or even doubles some of those coins will bleed your wallet dry. Then you'll be glad that you did buy those keys first. Of course, this is only my opinion.
aha! I have at least one person saying the grade-raritites are a fad. I am glad to have at least one person say that. I think the high grades are so high that they have a lot of room to fall. whats not known is how many vault collections exist of raw coins. an author in a march 2007 magazine was talking about lincoln pennies. he said if collectors and dealers take time to break open old rolls, and some more specimens get graded high, then the coin that was bought at auction for $25,000 now is a $10,000 or a $5,000 coin,, because new specimens are graded. but the flip-side is how could the grade-rarities be a fad. its almost wishful thinking so the small collector like me can get bigger prices for the bottom grades. I guess the question is: can the hobby promote itself to the public to create new coin collectors. Sure, its impossible to build the complete collection if you're not Bill Gates. The question becomes, can we get the public interested in coins to where If you generate enough interest, all the $30 AUs become $200 coins over 15 or 20 years? 1880-o is a nice date. I was wondering if anybody was going to comment on the 1880-o. Look at the common mintages: 8 million; ten million; 12 million. Theres 5 million 1880-o.
Since we're giving opinions, this is mine. For the most part Morgan dollars have been in a down trend price wise for the past 2 years. They show no sign of slowing up that trend. So if I was trying to put a Morgan dollar collection together I wouldn't be in any hurry.
i had been looking for a series to collect and chose the morgan series. i feel the prices are fair at this time. opted to collect in ms63/64 grades for most commons. the semi keys in range of fine - au depending on price. the major keys will be dependent on availability and budget at the time. i felt this was the way to get nice attractive coins in an affordable price range. tho i'm not really looking at investment potential as much as a quality coin for a fair price.take your time and enjoy. i look forward to hearing how your collection progresses so keep us informed....best wishes...steve
I'm probably the only one in the world who thinks this, but if the goal is to make money, I would collect the cheapest morgans you can find. For example, if silver is $13 per ounce, a lot of circulated common date morgans probably cost about $15. If silver triples to about $40, the morgan will probably sell for about $45 and the collector/investor will also about triple the investment. But if you by a scarce date or high grade coin for about $200, it would have to go to about $600 to match the performance. I don't see many of these coins rising by $400 on a $27 increase in silver prices. Anyway, that's the view from the cheap seats.
It depends on whether the goal is to make as much money as possible or enjoy a hobby by completing sets, ect... If someone is really really really an expert, maybe they could do both. I can't, except by accident.
Judging by this post, you seem to want to make money a.k.a. invest. The numismatic market has been in a strong, lengthy bull market for the last 4 or so years, and many segments appear to be slowing down. Hey, all good things must come to an end eventually! The precious metals market has also experienced tremendous growth in the last four years, and yet it does not appear to be slowing down any time soon. Your choice, though IMO go with the bullion.
