Hello, first post. I stumbled across this website a few months ago and have spent a couple hours each evening reading through the archives. It’s amazing what is discussed and what I have learned. You guys rock! I started collecting in the late 70s when I was I was 4/5. I’d tag along with my dad to the local, dusty, dirty, smoky coin shop in Jacksonville and sit in the corner sifting through cans of wheat and indian cents while he was looking at Morgans. I never imagined that I would look back at those times with fond memories, although I am certain I suffered permanent lung damage. I really never thought about coins again until my dad’s collection was sitting in front of me a few years ago in several trunks. It was very unorganized and it took a solid year just to sift through it. He loved Morgans and had a fairly decent amount of modern commemoratives, proof sets and a little pre-1933 gold. Unfortunately, roughly half of the Morgans were not handled properly. I spent several years unloading those and filling out a near complete set with some very nice coins and lots of fun varieties. Currently, I am only missing a 89cc, 93s, and 94. Those Morgans were an exhausting and expensive journey. Lately, I’ve been working on the proof sets. It was pretty easy and cheap to fill in the many missing years with nice proofs sets in original mint packaging. Until I got down to 1955. Then things got fun. Although I purchased a really nice box and flat pack set for 1955, it was time to go older by building it coin by coin. Although I made some mistakes while working on 1955 and 1954, I learned an absolute ton regarding proofs and luckily those 2 years were not that costly. Once I got to 1953, everything I purchased has been already graded by a major TPG. As my dates are getting older, my coins are getting better. Cherry picking proofs is a hard task to learn mainly due to the patience required. Looking past the holder and grade was another challenge at first. I am in love my 1950 set. The Franklin is a stunning PCGS PF64 with zero toning or spots. My plan was always to stop at 1950 so of course…. I’ve been working on 1942 for the past 6 months. Only thing left of 1942 is the Walker. But I think I will start working on 1941 before I buy that. So here is a topic that might drum up some conversation: I hated looking at these proof sets in the TPG holders. I have zero plans to ever sell them. Therefore, I cracked them all out of their individual holders and placed them into Capital plastic holders. I didn’t really have any reservations about doing that until the 1951 Franklin (also PCGS PR64). Then I almost couldn’t do it with the 1950 Franklin. In hindsight, maybe I wouldn’t have done that if I would have thought of these as a per type series instead of a per year series. But I am a physicist and so it is hard to derail my train of thought. In the end, I am glad I did it as these sets are stunning to me and I look at them frequently. But now I have a chance to step back and think about for the 1942 and eventual earlier sets. Thoughts? I am going to post a question regarding the 1942 quarter PCGS PR66 in another thread. Specifically regarding the TrueView pic. Anyway, thanks for listening and I hope to contribute to this site. I have thick skin so fire away! My lame attempt at some pics: Here is how I organized the Morgans. Which really sucked considering every TPG holder is a different size in all 3 dimensions. Plus, I just bought a really pretty 1880/9 S. Where am I going to put it?! Lol 1950-1955 sets:
First, welcome to the neighborhood @bradgator2 ! The answer to your Morgan storage question is quite simple. Just buy a few more of the same cases as the one shown above and start your VAM Collection. There are a few thousand VAM's! ~ Chris
Ha, of course! I do love reading about some of the popular vams. I enjoy the ones you can see with no magnification. The 7/8 tail feathers, O/S, the 78 and 79 reverses, the super clashes, my latest 80/9. Although I consider myself “done” with Morgans, I do find myself always watching the auctions and keeping an eye out for something I dont have. Brad
Welcome to CT. Save your money so you can buy the few Morgan's you don't have in order to complete your fathers set.
IT'S GREAT TO BE A FLORIDA GATOR!! Awesome pics, jealous. Althought I just picked up a 1937 proof set that's been graded. I'm not sure I would break it out though. Have you been able to buy the proofs for reasonable prices? By reasonable I mean what they sell for at auctions? What I've seen at dealer's tables are usually overpriced by at least 50%.
I bought everything on ebay. Although I have recently started poking around on GreatCollections and others. It required patience. It’s hard to say what is “overpriced”. For my Morgans, a charted out the NGC price guide, PCGS price guide, Redbook price guide, and the numismedia website.... and averaged them. With those, the average was almost exactly the PCGS price guide. With the proofs, I went straight up researching auction prices. I’d start tracking the coin I wanted, but didnt like that particular coin. At least I had a trend to go by. In the end, the value is worth what someone will buy it for. Having said all that, I find most things on Ebay are purchased for roughly 75% of the PCGS priceguide. All of my proofs followed that trend. For my 4 costliest coins in the proof journey: 1950 Franklin, PCGS PR64, total price $311. Priceguide $450. (69%) 1951 Franklin, PCGS PR64, total price $231. Priceguide $325. (71%) 1942 Mercury, PCGS PR65, total price $130. Priceguide $160. (81%) 1942 Quarter. PCGS PR66, total price $74. Priceguide $120. (61%). I actually started another thread about this coin. I think the trueview pic caused the low bidding price. The only coin that I “overpaid” for was the 1952 Dime, NGC PF66. Got it for $28 and the price guide is $25. But there are so many market forces at play with a $25 coin (grading cost, shipping, ebay cost, etc) that I didn’t mind. Go Gators! Brad
I should also add that I highly use the “make an offer” or contact the seller on a buy it now. I’ll quote the seller the last 5 auctions and give a price in the middle of those. It’s fine if they dont want to accept, I know “my coin” will come back around. That happened with my latest purchase, the beautiful 1942 dime, PCGS PR65. Dealer had it listed for $175 on a buy it now. I messaged him, quoted him the last 10 auctions on HA, David Lawrence, ebay... and said it’s “only worth” $120. He agreed, countered with $130 and I accepted.
