Having walked the bourse floor here in Texas today, I was amazed at the number of people buying the slab. Customers walking to the dealers table asking for a specific grade by one grading service or another. As most of you have heard many times here on this forum, most dealers and collectors will share the advice of buying the coin, not the holder. Too often, collectors take the shortcut. The belief that grading services are never wrong, or that all MS-65 coins are created equally. Grading is an art that takes much practice. It requires study, and time. Many coins must be viewed. When you take shortcuts, you only shortcut yourself. When you are looking to make coin purchases in person. You should look at multiple examples of the same date in the same grade. The keys to grading are eye appeal, luster, marks, strike, and condition. A little knowledge in this hobby goes a long ways. Before investing your hard earned cash on coins, spend a little on your referrence material. The two best statements that are made by dealers and collectors alike are "Buy the book before the coin" and "Buy the coin, not the holder"
ND, I didn't know you were going to be at the Texas show. I made it down there today & had a blast! I would have loved to meet you I'd been cramming & doing so much research all week in preparation for this show & STILL was a bit overwhelmed. What an amazing experience. And I am proud to say I DID NOT buy the slab I did, however, have the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Ed Hipps. What a wonderful man. He took much time & patience with us and in the end I walked out with 3 stunning Morgans... 1880 S MS64 1881 S MS64 1885 O MS64 He was also gracious enough to look over a few things that I brought with me & helped me better understand what I have. Were you at a table today? I'm so bummed I missed you, but I talked to sssoooo many great people that maybe I ran into you & didn't realize it. I was with my husband and 6 year old son (wearing a soccer uniform) and I was carrying a backpack & wearing a pink shirt. Robin
Those are some nice coins, Robin! Spend some time trying to find the little differences between the coins you have. Each of the years and mint productions have very slight little changes from coin to coin. And if you weren't already overwhelmed, there is a whole other addiction - varieties. I was looking at one of the 1883 CC GSA dollars tonight and found a die break on the reverse. I thought I was going to need oxygen I was so giddy. Be afraid! Be very afraid!!
Cris, thanks...I'm pretty excited about them. I'll have to spend some time examining them more closely. Are there any good books you can recommend on dollars? We're primarily interested in Morgans and will be branching off into Peace eventually. I'm also partial to Walker halves...goes back to my childhood when my Dad would bring them out. Always thought they were more beautiful than anything I'd ever seen. Congrats on your discovery, how exciting. I can't even think about taking the collection to that level yet. Sooo much more for me to learn. Robin
There is more information that you can digest, but it pretty much is all good stuff.... Here are a few books, in ever increasing difficulty: Assuming the you are starting at the beginning you will want to get the general grading sense from these books... Photograde at Amazon.com How to Grade US Coins at Amazon The PCGS Guide at Amazon Breen Encyclopedia of US Coins Then these Morgan specific books: The Morgan Dollar Red Book at Amazon.com The Comprehensive Morgan and Peace Dollar Encyclopedia at Amazon Then there is the pocket VAM description of the Top 100 VAM varieties. Hope this helps... Cris
I recommend the new Red book for Morgans. Written by Q. David Bowers, this is a great beginners book. Not too overwhelming, while still providing a wealth of information. We did not set up a table at the Texas show. Just went in search of some early gold. Overall, it was a good show.
My dad is the same way...he loves the WL half's. One thing you might try is to find someone who has hoarded coins over the years or someone who has inherited old coins. I just got to go though part of a hoard and found some neat buys. Out of the WL half dollars, here is what I found: 1938-d VF 1916 VG 1917-s REV VG 1917-s OBV VG 1923-s F and more. Also a 1897-s half dollar in G was a neat find. I was able to buy (not only these but about 100 or more coins in all) for around $200. Just thought you might give it a try Speedy
Cris & ND...Thanks so much for the info on the books. I already have Photograde, although it doesn't take you into the higher grades (anything over 50) like I had hoped and want to pursue. I need to pick up the Morgan Redbook, that sounds good. Speedy...Congrats on the great finds from your treasure hunt! Sure wish I had luck like that. I don't even know how to go about finding out who would have such a stash, guess I'll have to keep my eyes & ears open a little wider. Although, I may have one source of some goodies. My husbands grandmother said she thinks her parents had a stash of silver dollars and maybe halves that she's going to look for for us. THAT would be a treasure if she can find them. She's still living in the same house and that place is loaded with great old finds. They came over on the boat from Poland in the early 1900's and had a penchant for hoarding & stashing things. My husband has great memories of his great-grandparents & is really hoping to find something of theirs to add to our ever-growing collection to pass on to Joe someday. I'll keep you guys posted if lady luck smiles in my direction....Hmmm, think I need to go call her right now.
Does anyone ever "sell the slab"? I would like to find those type of sellers so I could cherry pick premium quality slabs from them.
Just about as many dealers "sell the slab" as there are collectors who "buy the slab". So take your pick
Hello National Dealer and everyone! National Dealer...I have a copy of Q. David Bowers Official Red Book of Morgan Silver Dollars here and on page 153, when describing some of the keys to collecting these Morgan's, Bowers states the following: For the collector of certified coins, New Orleans dollars are a breeze: look at the label and write a check. I know there are always exceptions to every rule but am I wrong to think that if professional graders at PCGS and/or NGC certify a coin at MS-65 and slab it at that grade, it's probably safe for me to conclude it is a MS-65 and not anything higher or lower?
Howdy GoldEagle - Welcome to the Forum !! Now to answer your question - let me put it this way. Your chances are better with them than most others - but is it a certainty - no it is not. Everybody has their own favorite grading company and there are certainly many for each. But neither of them are infallible. If I were you - before spending meaningfull amounts of money - I would make every attempt to learn a good bit more.
Welcome to the forum. Here is some logic. All MS-65 coins are not the same. If you were to set 100 1879-O Morgan together that have all been certified MS-65 by any service, they are not going to look exactly the same. You would be hard pressed to find 5 that looked the same. Dealers and seasoned collectors have certain ideas of what a 65 should look like. I do not care who at what grading service says 65. If I don't agree, I don't buy. With many coins having large differences in price between grades, it pays to be choose wisely. Mr. Bowers has been doing a series in CoinWorld about this particular topic. This is wisdom that most collectors did not understand and still don't.
