No, it isn't. It's a book that Bowers titled the Red Book. And the number is wrong ! But don't take my word for it, go look it up yourself. The Red Book, Krause, Coin Facts, even Heritage will verify what I said. From Heritage - 1880-CC $1 MS67 NGC In the original GSA holder. The 1880-CC has an impressively low mintage of only 591,000 pieces. Here's the link - http://coins.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=372&Lot_No=10107 Coin Facts - 1880-CC 591,000 - http://www.coinfacts.com/silver_dollars/morgan_dollars/morgan_silver_dollars.html
Relax! I see! You're referring to the Red Book of U.S. Coins, and I was referring to QDB's Red Book of Morgan Dollars. What is dumb is that they are both published by Whitman. It appears to be one of those instances where the right hand didn't know that the left hand had already stolen the cookies. Now, it makes me wonder about the accuracy of any of QDB's assertions. Thanks for pointing that out. Chris
Bowers' knowledge is probably unsurpassed. But his books, like any book, can have errors. You can trust 99.99999% of what is in his books. And actually, I'm surprised that one made it to press. I even know the person who did the proof reading on that book. They will hear from me.
Sometimes David Bower's book will have different mintage than Redbook and all the other websites, later his mintage will appear in Redbook. I noticed the mintage for some of the early commemoratives in Red Book changed after his book came out. Missouri, BTW and other commemorative mintages changed in Red Book during the last couple of years after his book came out. But the changed mintages haven't progessed to Heritage and most other website yet.
$500 is a little high. Most recent sales I've seen are $450 and under. And that's slabbed in the original holder.
An 80-CC VAM-6 sold last month in a PCGS MS63 for $510, and it didn't look as nice as this one. Chris
Thats already certified and has Buyers Premium on it, soo subtract $40-50 on certification, plus you should never really pay quite as much as Heritage if your buying directly from the seller because the seller does not encounter auction fees which are relatively high
I checked Heritage Chris. And the 63's they've got look nicer than this one. Lowest I saw was $437 in the past few months.
Actually, I'm in no great rush to get one, but I do like the VAM-6. There was a really nice NGC MS65 VAM-5 Rainbow that sold in the last Scotsman auction, but it went way over my head. I'll probably wait until FUN 2011 to get a couple more. Chris
VAMS never held any interest for me when I collected US. I just ignored them. To others of course they are of great interest. Such is life. But in any event, patience is the key. I used to collect the GSA coins in original holders. I managed to cherrypick a raw 1881-CC 63 DMPL on ebay once for 63 money. At the time, NGC did not yet slab the original holders. After I sold the coin, the new owner submitted it. It came back 63 DMPL
I have about a dozen in the GSA cases that will eventually go to NGC, but I want them to put them in their normal slab with the GSA provenance on the insert. NGC doesn't warranty the coin in the GSA case, and I personally don't see that it makes that much difference. Heck, I don't intend to sell them. That will be the problem of my heirs. Chris