GTG 1921 Morgan. Not your average 1921.

I actually rather like the milkspotted 1921's for one major reason - you can be absolutely sure they're unmolested, original-surface coins.

The grade was vicious on NGC's part. Not that you should, but if CAC considers cracked planchets worthy of mainstream grades, there's no way this one doesn't get a gold bean. I'm thinking the die pair is pretty old - note the granularity around the denticles; the surface was beginning to break down there, and I can see evidence of perimeter characters starting to draw to the edges. This old, the scribbles (if any) might be too worn for an attribution that way, and that nice crack thru OF may not even be known yet for whatever VAM it is (knowing the VAM doesn't mean we know all the die states yet).

It's an excellent strike for the wear on the dies, though. You can see where the denticles flattened at the crack on the reverse, but the talon detail seems all there and the large lower leaves are almost complete. Plenty of detail above the ear, and the cotton bolls look almost full. Well-struck.

Have a closer look at the obverse crack thru the E. That's a very popular place for 1921's to crack. To the left of the E, it looks almost to have become a displaced field but that could be the lighting.

I'd have outbid you for this one if I'd seen it too.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

You know this coin was up for a while and no one bought it. He relisted for $250 with best offer. I offered under $201 and he accepted. I consider myself lucky after doing some research.

 

I agree that the grade is a little harsh. NGC should be taken to the woodshed for not putting "Split Planchet" on the label. If it were my coin I should call them an point out their error and ask for at least an MS-63. ICG and ANACS would have treated that coin a lot MORE PROFESSIONALLY!

Now to the more important part of this post: "...you can be absolutely sure they're unmolested, original-surface coins" This is pure nonsense.

The spots indicate NOTHING about the originality of the coin! You can dip that coin a million times and those spots will not come off unless you harshly abrade the coin turning it into an AU! All those spots do is lower the eye-appeal and thus the MS grade.

 

It occurs to me I know a previous owner of that coin, perhaps the guy who sold it to you. He had it up on Coin Community a couple years ago. The price is kind of premium, but I wouldn't call it "overpaid." Cracked planchets seem to be most common on 1921's of the Morgan series, but either way they're too rare to establish any sort of coherent value structure.

 

I did see this coin on that forum during my research. It was purchased from a gentleman in Northern Ca who purchased for a client who never paid for it. It's sat in his inventory until I purchased it.

I read the 21's are more common due to silver being melted down and some blends incorrectly mixed/processed.

I'm looking for some '04 and earlier planchet flaws if you see any sub $300 ish. I found one with a staple but they want too much.

 

Embedded staple strikethroughs are HIGHLY popular and bring very good money. Same with embedded wood strikethroughs. Heck, just about any embedded strikethrough. Those are strike errors though as opposed to planchet errors. Look for large laminations both retained and detached or large slag impurities but split planchets are as good as planchet errors come aside from a full planchet break after the strike with both halves remaining together all these years. I only know of 1 of those and the owner nicknamed his businesses after it... Broken CC (Northern Nevada Coin) Google them and check out their error collection online

 

I bought my 80-S star with planchet flaw from them. I wouldn't mind a broken CC or a complete broken any year or MM Morgan.

 

Got 5 or 6 figures lol. That might be the only complete one and it ain't for sale. I don't even know if there's a half out there. See, after morgans were struck a table of ladies handled them one by one to visually inspect them then tapped them on a table to hear for the pitch for planchet irregularities before puting them in the 1000 ct canvas bags one by one. This is why errors, especially "wow" errors are so relatively rare in the morgan series.

 

There's an UNC Details half crack on eBay right now for $750 too bad someone cleaned it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/161354568815

 

Nice catch.

 

Link?

 

Wait. You mean halfway planchet crack not half of a full split after the strike right. That's what I'm talking about. Litterally half a morgan. Did you see the "broken CC"?

 

Not a half Morgan. I haven't seen one of those. I've stroked my..... Hair....ya.... That's it, my hair, a few times looking at the broken CC.

 

ditto

 

Haha. He's calling it a "true" scarface. More like the other way around. Smart of him though to put scarface in the title to try to get a scarface collector to bite on a mimic error.

 

It is a nice coin, and a good example of a major die crack for that date. I would say that the OP got it for a very good price. It isn't a very high technical grade (I would have gone higher if I were NGC), but interesting as an error coin, and certainly not a typical 1921 Morgan.

 

Not a die crack MD. Brain fart?

 

I ended up getting a raw one too. I'm guessing AU55-58 on this one. The crack is about 1/2" through the O/R but on the OBV the stress fracture continues 50% through the OBV. @SuperDave thoughts on this one?

It will be a nice addition to my mini error collection.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk