Grade my morgan please????

I am sure this advice will not be popular but I promise you will thank me later. If you are planning to spend $1,500+ on a toned Morgan Dollar then you are not going to be paying for the grade, you are going to be paying for the color. At that price level, the color should be mini-monster for the lower grades and superb for the premium gems.

In order to get a common date MS68, you are going to need near $3K. The better date Morgans are very rare with attractive toning and most are are held in strong hands and they bring very strong money when they do hit the market. That leaves you with the entire range of toned common date Morgans to choose from. Since you are rather new to the toning market, my advice would be to make a purchase that emphasizes grade value and lessens the premium of the toning. By purchasing an MS67 with rainbow toning the premium will be 3-4X wholesale while purchasing an MS64 with mini-monster toning will carry a premium of 10-20X wholesale.

Rather than concerning yourself with the aspects of grading of Morgan Dollars you should spend most of your time researching the types of premiums that different toning patterns bring. I will give you a hint. If you look at a toned coin and immediately think "holy cow" while frozen in awe, that is monster toning and the premiums are ridiculous. I have seen MS64's and MS65's sell for $5K. For the coins that don't invoke that reaction, you should be able to determine the premium that different patterns and color schemes drive in the market place. Search Heritage auction archives. A good way to do this is to use filters. Pull up all of the 1881-S Morgan Dollars in MS66 & MS67 that sold for more than $1K and you will quickly get an idea of how to evaluate the value of toning. Also visit the websites of people who sell rainbow toned coins so that you can understand the premiums in the Retail market. Brandon Kelly is at JhonECash. His website is very informative and educational and his prices are at the high end of the retail range. Spend some time reading his website as well as searching his inventory and archives.

Once you have an idea of the type of toning that you want, be patient and watch each Heritage signature auction until you find an example that you want. If you are really concerned about the coin being good for the grade, look for one with a CAC sticker. When you are ready, pull the trigger, and place your bid on the internet prior to the start of the auction. Do not go back until the auction is over. If you go back to check, you open yourself up to fall victim to auction fever. If you remain patient and stick to your original bid, eventually you will obtain your coin even if it takes several months. If you decide to purchase through the retail market, choose a dealer that you trust, offers a rock solid money back return policy, and doesn't juice their photos.

Good luck!

 

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Thank you very much for the advice and points well taken, I will most certainly look for a long time before settling on my prize there is no deadline.

 

In the mean time, read the book I suggested in my last post it will be a great help for you.