Today, I stopped by to visit with a friend whose husband of thirty one years had passed away. For some reason she shows me an envelope containing many old large bills and several silver certificates. Unfortunately, none of them are in collector condition. Then she shows me a small box containing 85 Morgans and Peace dollars. A time capsule. Someone placed them in the box many many years ago. All are UNCLEANED! Most show very fine details eg clear chin, mouth, eyes and hair texture on the obverse very good, almost perfect or perfect details, in the feathers on the reverse. I told her if she wants more information about them I have a friend who collects Morgans and peace dollars. 1878-4 1879-2 1880-2 1881-1 1882-2 1884-1 1889-3 1891-2 1896-3 1898-2 1903-1 1921-19 1922-13 1923-18 1924-1 1925-1 1926-2 1934-1 1935-1 Driving home i realized I didn't check the mint marks. next time I'm out there i'll check the mint marks. I think melt value is around $2,600.00 no telling what the collector value is.
Thats a pretty good hoard of silver. There are some good dates in there and if they have mint marks they're even better. But looking at the list the 1878 is a good date depending on mint mark and variety type as well as the 1903. And the 1921 is a key date too.
At the local auctions in NY, the common date morgans have been running between $40-$50 each in circulation condition. The common date peace dollars have averaged $35-$40. It seems that the morgans are pulling $20 over melt with the peace at about $12.50. I'm not sure if this trend will continue but it seems that the speculators are pushing up the prices.
Key word in your post is "auction". Prices at auctions are driven up by bidiots, no different than what occurs on eBay. Check around at coin shows, the prices are more reasonable for common dates and mintmarks, especially for coins with a melt only value.
Amazingly, only a few of the these coins are of melt quality. Most are extremely fine condition. Looking for an excuse go back there and collect mint marks.
