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50 Morgan Dollars for Every Collector. Part III: Carson City, San Francisco & Denver Strikes
Apr 23, 2025
Coin dealer Russ Augustin (AU Capital Management, RARCOA) joins Charles Morgan to discuss an innovative new set collecting idea for the Morgan Dollar series.
Called The Morgan 50, these 50 coins from the five Morgan dollar producing mints are affordable enough at MS63 grade that any collector of Modern U.S. Mint material will have the ability to complete the set.
The Morgan 50 Set will be discussed in three video episodes:
Part I: The Philly Strikes
Part II: New Orleans Strikes
Part III: San Francisco, Carson City, and Denver Strikes
Russ and Charles have teamed up with our friends at NGC to establish the Morgan 50 as a NGC Registry Set type.
To learn more visit www.ngc.com.
To view Russ' current inventory of Morgan dollars, gold coins, and more visit www.aucm.com.
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0:00
[Music]
0:09
[Music] hey Russ long time no see i I know we uh
0:15
planned to do uh our third video in this series a few years ago but the market time and everything else got in the way
0:22
but we are back if you want to finish our trilogy of uh Morgan 50 videos
0:28
you've landed on the right video um it's been two years I think and and I looked
0:33
at the NGC set registry list today 525 competitive sets that's awesome for
0:40
Morgan 50s and and what's to everybody out there who's doing it yeah yeah and and right now
0:47
um collector Brian Thomas uh his name's on the on the public uh
0:54
facing side of the site so I feel comfortable saying it brian Thomas in the Thomas Creek 50 collection is 98%
1:03
complete and is running away with
1:08
187,275 points um the next closest competitor he has Terry LS's Terry's
1:16
Morgan 50 set is 100% complete but is trailing by 60 uh,000 points in the set
1:25
registry so so so so what the reason for that is that uh uh Brian sets got MS68
1:33
coins 66 dimples lot of CAC material 67 plus so I know in
1:39
the in the context of what we've been talking about um in our videos you know we're talking about this set is
1:47
accomplishable all 50 coins is a is accomplishable for the collector who you
1:52
know wants to be into these for you know between$1 and $400 a coin with plenty of
1:58
coins in the $85,90 $100 $125 range so
2:04
when we were looking at three $400 coins we thought well every set needs some special coins for you to chase so we put
2:11
we put some of them in there but but those are the you know the keys of this everyman set really or the semi keys of
2:18
the set so we don't expect every collector to go out there and and and put together sets with dimples and and
2:24
and and plus plus grades and top pop kind of coins but you certainly can and
2:29
and for that that collector uh you're going to you know you're going to have to compete uh against some collectors
2:35
who are really astute in their buying habits and and and what their tastes are so um but like I said 525 people uh have
2:43
liked this idea so far and that's just on the NGC side um I can report that uh
2:48
my collect um which uh is a uh numismatic social media site also has
2:55
their own set registry program with awards they they added the uh Morgan 50
3:01
and and who knows maybe in some time CAC or uh PCGS may get on the get on the
3:07
ball on it but right now NGC uh was the first to adopt it and uh and so you can
3:13
go back look at our other uh videos to see what we had to say about New Orleans coins Philadelphia coins uh I'm sure our
3:20
price analysis back then uh will be a little bit dated the Morgan dollar market has increased uh some of these
3:26
prices for common date coins has increased in the last few years um do you want to speak on that real quick i know you've been uh you've been looking
3:32
and studying the numbers as we prepare for today's episode yes and I I'll comment just before you
3:41
mentioned like the NGC registry set and as a PCGS registry set um contributor
3:46
myself i also understand that the guys with those very high grade the dimples the 68 coins may also have a
3:54
cross-section of their coins and other types of sets so you know there are some
3:59
people who will pick as many different types of sets as they can and click the button and all those coins will populate
4:05
in there which is probably why he the one and two guys are so far and away ahead of the rest of the pack um but as
4:14
far as the um the market is concerned to to meet your question
4:20
um despite the fact that demand for silver has uh it it has gone up but not
4:27
noticeably so gold is certainly taking the center stage um the underlying spot price for any kind of pre-1933
4:34
numismatic coin um is going up in tandem with the spot price silver however I
4:41
think when we were talking um two years ago wasn't it around 22 to $24 an ounce
4:48
yeah yeah it was it was it was at that time that was a pretty stout price but that's very modest compared to where it
4:54
is now yeah so we're now 30 and you know we hit 33 and we bumped back down again
4:59
i think silver has got a ton of pro uh potential at this point whether you buy
5:05
90% or whether you buy you know your 50piece Morgan dollar set and I think
5:10
that um the numbers we talked about today uh will kind of give everybody an idea
5:18
as to what to look for and how that um you just can't assign one price to one
5:25
coin and expect to pay that price it depends on how good they are here at
5:30
Rarecoa um we have double row boxes by date in
5:36
63 and 64 grade um so I I can look through 50 coins at a time and pick out
5:43
three or four that I really like and the rest are like uh are those three or four
5:49
supposed to be the same price as the other 47 no and what's going to happen
5:56
today when we discuss the average price and the high and the low I think will it'll emphasize if you go for quality
6:03
and then you talk for price you're going to have a far better uh um outcome on
6:09
this project than you will if you just go by price right and and I want to want to speak really quick russ brought up
6:16
this silver and gold kind of comparison and um I won't dig too deeply into each
6:22
of our backgrounds uh here you know and spare you that that long story but I I I
6:28
think you're going to find very few uh professional numismatists in the in
6:33
the field who have put as much time and energy in studying uh coin prices and
6:39
trends and anomalies within the market as like what Russ and I have done over the length of our careers years um and
6:46
and that that's elevated Russ to be one of the preeminent US coin dealers in the country and the senior numismatist for
6:52
rare koa and uh it's what I put into a lot of the anal an analytical articles we write on coin week i would say that
7:00
when you're looking at gold at this price point my hunch is a lot of this price is being driven by institutional
7:05
buying and what that ends up doing is that ends up squeezing out like the I
7:13
would just say the the the hobby collector the hobby investor uh the uh
7:19
sort of the uh hard money numismatic buyer you know cuz I I think they look at 34 $3,500 gold when they have this
7:28
muscle memory of paying $1,800 or $2,000 for a generic saint or or a 20 L even
7:35
2,700 right right 27 yeah they have this muscle memory of that so they're looking at this 34 $3500 price point and and it
7:43
and to a certain point it starts to feel like real money and I think that we are
7:49
seeing like you know that that I think is why there is a big opportunity in silver coins silver coins have always
7:56
served that uh sort of that hard money traditional type of collector who
8:01
doesn't want to go so deeply into precious the gold side of it because you
8:06
get more coins more variety more history and silver coins for the same amount of
8:11
money and I think that that's like what drew a lot of people to Morgan dollars you know once the bags were depleted and
8:18
the coins started selling at you know like like hot cakes at coin shows it's certainly what helped elevate the rare
8:24
coin market when third party grading came into the to being and people were looking for Jim Morgans and all these
8:30
dates um and and I think now is probably a really good opportunity because you
8:35
know these silver coins have been overshadowed for quite a long time and and I think now they're they're they
8:41
they look affordable to me at at the at the at the current spread and and I
8:46
think that if uh if you're a savvy and sophisticated buyer there's more than enough information available now for you
8:52
to like make sound decisions when it comes to uh when it comes to u you know
8:59
which coins to buy i would agree with that i'd agree with that there there will be you know there is obviously a
9:04
base level for you know a graded 63 graded 64 graded 65 silver
9:12
dollar there is currently a the same thing going on with a graded St godens
9:17
coin however that price is fluctuating far greater than I think the silver dollars are i think the silver dollars
9:23
are uh you don't have to watch the market every day to determine what the value is they're pretty predictable the
9:31
trends however are on the up and you can just tell that by watching the
9:36
television and radio ad and listening to the radio advertising um but with gold
9:42
uh we've had to change our television ads on Rareco Direct uh like just
9:48
yesterday we were changing the $10 Liberty in MS-61 because the price was
9:53
like below melt i mean way below melt and it was a certified MS-61 coin so
9:59
yeah it's it can be a problem this kind of uh this focus in on the 50
10:04
piece set I think allows you to uh comfortably acquire the right
10:12
coin maintaining a condition uh look and then worrying about the price because as
10:20
I think we've said before you pay you might have to pay up for something but the price price eventually catches up
10:27
and then exceeds what you paid for it quote from John Ford yeah and and and
10:33
just to keep in mind like one one final nail in the coffin here for the gold i I think if you buy a uh 24 Saint and 64
10:41
now and I I don't know what you're charging for them Russ but I think at the Baltimore show you could pro you
10:46
could probably get them for $400 or $500 cheaper than you can now but let's say you bought one at $3,500 and if gold
10:52
goes down to uh $1,800 again and I'm not suggesting it there's any reason why it will anytime soon but if gold goes down
10:59
to like you know some tradition you know some level that we saw a few years ago then your your coin is going to decline
11:05
in value to to compensate for the decline the spot price if if silver goes
11:11
from 30 $35 to $25 you're not going to see the same market retraction on the
11:18
value of these certified Morgan dollars you just you're just not going to see it because the Morgan dollars are more
11:24
driven by the demand the popularity the series and the grade than it that than by simply by the bullion value of the
11:31
coin and the affordability right that's why so many people get into it is because they are inexpensive and you can
11:38
get a box in the mail you can enjoy the coin and put it into that set right so let's start uh let's start we're going
11:45
to do CC mints and we're going to do the S mints so CC mints are going to be pretty quick and easy we got three of
11:51
these coins uh so let's start there first so we're going to be looking at the 82 83 and 84 CC and uh for people
11:58
just getting into Morgan dollars uh what is the appeal of the CC mint coins why why are they essential for our set and
12:06
and why are they you know why why is it only a few dates that really uh qualify
12:12
to be in a set like this well Carson City is you know the Wild
12:17
West and then everybody's who's at least uh probably 40 years and older you know
12:23
the Wild West has an allure to it and it always has um there have been hordes of these coins
12:30
that have come to market namely the GSA hordes uh and I should preface that by
12:36
saying that any coin that is in a larger format GSA holder that's certified is
12:42
going to be a completely separate discussion because they usually tend to bring a
12:47
premium but you also have to have Carson cities and the 82 while it's not in the
12:53
same category as 83 and 84 it's a little bit more difficult to find but not by
12:59
much um you have then a addition you have one of each mint in your 50 coin
13:05
set and um 82,834 allows you you know a
13:11
c a good cross-section and it also means that you might be able to build out that set from 1878 to 1893
13:20
to me what's interesting is you could go I think when I got it when I got into the uh coin collecting hobby I think you
13:27
could get a CC mint Morgan dollar for about 75 $80 and it's probably in the uh
13:33
the late 80s early 90s um 2010 2015 I think you're paying about 200 i think
13:41
you're paying probably over 400 now and uh what what Russ was talking about like
13:46
these uh coins that are in the original certified coins that are that were kept
13:52
intact in their GSA holder bringing more of a premium this is just one of those
13:58
curiosities of numismatics where uh for for for decades dealers couldn't and
14:04
collectors couldn't wait to crack them out of those holders to send them in to get them slabbed and then there came a
14:09
point when we started to realize that we had gone through a fair amount of these
14:17
and and have selected the better ones to send in for slabbing which meant that those holders were cracked out uh but
14:24
that it was getting more and more difficult to find superb gem or Jimmy coins in these uh in these original
14:31
holders where they were coming from is the fact well ba basically when the GSA
14:37
sales happened they were nationally advertised these were the coins that Jesse James didn't get there was a whole
14:43
brochure spiel about it um and there it was basically one of the largest public auctions ever that the government held
14:50
and they basically sold the coins uh for for about a decade these sales went on
14:55
and because the way the government did it these weren't bought by in wholesale
15:00
by marketers ers and and the majority of it wasn't kept within the industry the
15:06
inventory was spread throughout the country very diffuse and and individual
15:12
collectors low like you know collectors who maybe that GSA coin was their first coin maybe a a brown pack Ike was their
15:19
second coin and then they they got a couple mint sets and we never saw them again these types of collectors held
15:26
over half of the inventory I would say and so as they're coming back into the
15:32
market you know and we're processing these sometimes for the first time uh
15:37
you know some the select coins are being sent in and kept in the GSA holder to sort of respect that as a numismatic
15:45
collectible in its own right so you can have an MS64
15:51
1883cc and that GSA holder certified by uh PCGS or NGC and then one in a just
15:59
straight up holder straight up NGC or PCGS holder and it just seems like the
16:04
market is shifting where they want that originality they want that they want to keep that that nostalgic connection to
16:10
its its original release uh packaging it's very interesting and one of the one
16:16
of the greatest things was that they determined the grading services determined how to put that label the
16:22
grading label on the on the holder itself um and also to touch on what you
16:27
said that um as these coins were being sold in these holders and then packaged
16:34
and then mailed by USPS um I mean the number of times I've come
16:40
across like a collection doing an estatus appraisal or you know a date of death evaluation or something like that
16:46
and I find these original boxes that have been opened up but the original the client's name is on it you know with the
16:53
on the label and this is how they must have arrived from the government and I
16:58
think this was like running concurrently as they were selling mint and proof sets but this was something else entirely
17:04
this actually I think opened a lot of people's eyes to collecting coins
17:09
whereas before you just had the sort of the dieards who wanted like an example of each date that came the mint set and
17:16
the proof set that came out that year so all of a sudden I see a lot of these things yes I get it they're cracked out
17:24
Sometimes I see them with PCGS holders that say GSA on it it doesn't quite hold the same
17:31
feeling but um I you know I'm not sure that we can go too much down the
17:38
GSA topic without getting lost in what we're trying to do on these values here
17:44
with the non-GSAs and even so um I my numbers I couldn't I couldn't take out
17:49
the numbers that I was evaluating on the GSAs but I'll mention that as we go along if there's uh something in there
17:56
sure and and I'll say one we'll get through the the prices for the individual dates but I I want to make one more point so obviously coins the
18:04
weird thing about coins is like you're holding history in your hands this is like a cliche that you hear a lot and so
18:10
you can think about the Old West right you can you can think about the GSA sales but but you also have to think
18:17
about these two things so when the silver stockpile that the government had
18:22
was depleted in the early 1960s this is before s the the Congress decided to to
18:28
pass the coins act to 65 change all of our circulating silver coins to clad coins
18:34
the numismatic community was aware that the government had a stockpile of a few million CC mint Morgan dollars
18:42
and if they weren't like brought to the attention of the public at that point they just would have been given out at
18:49
face value along with the rest of it until all the stockpile was depleted but people who worked at the treasury
18:54
realized that maybe you know these were low mintage coins they might have more value the numismatic community was
19:00
totally split as to what should be done with the coins because there are a lot of cheese guarding uh collectors who
19:06
didn't want their coin to decrease in value because all of a sudden uh half of the mintage of 2 million coins was being
19:13
released to the public um it turned out that the fears about these coins wrecking the market were unfounded
19:20
because all they did is exploded interest in the in the market second thing is so we're talking so
19:27
that's why it takes the government a few years to decide what to do with it there were like many deliberations congress
19:33
deliberated about what to do with these coins the treasury deliberated the numismatic community gave input key
19:40
numismatic figures of the time went to the West Point Mint to observe the coins so this was like a situation where the
19:47
government was working with the hobby to figure out what the right disposition would be for the coins so when the coins
19:53
get released you have to understand this not only are they old west coins not
19:58
only are they low mintage coins not only are nearly all of them in mint condition but for the 1970s and early 1980s these
20:06
were the most popular coins in the series that were collected these these
20:12
these coins for a decade were top of mind for anybody getting into coin collecting anybody into Morgan dollars
20:19
and so when you're collecting these coins like that 10year stretch where
20:24
these were like the the topic dour of coin collecting uh that that still
20:30
penetrates like people's idea of these coins and and I think that is why the GSA holders hold such a a powerful
20:37
market force right now because it's connected to that period of time when the GSA Morgan dollars are the the
20:44
biggest story in coins yep yep without a doubt so Russ let's go through these date by
20:50
date what do we got 82 83 84 so we're going to talk about 63 and 64 great yep
20:58
um I've run in a study like um because there's a there's a current disposition
21:04
between uh how to collect it what holder to buy that kind of thing so I've run the numbers on PCGS NGC and then CAC
21:13
both PCGS and NGC um and for the 63 grades of the Carson
21:20
Cities they're pretty consistent but uh for example
21:26
um over the past year um the last 10 auction records for an 1882 Carson City
21:34
PCGS 63 the average is $341 and incidentally that's been all of
21:41
those sales are from STAX Bowers um in their either collector's choice online
21:46
auction or showcase auction and and in many cases throughout what we're talking about that's the source of these coins
21:53
you have a low of 288 but a high of 456
21:59
and I'll also preface as we go along but I'll say right now that these high prices oftent times don't indicate the
22:08
general trend 456 is the high but then 341 is the average that's more of the
22:14
price that you would would expect to pay for a coin i wouldn't try to buy one under $300 and keep in mind when we're
22:20
looking at a 63cc coin I would say kind of typical
22:26
uncirculated for for the for the uh issue i mean if you look at them
22:31
so this would have been the one you would have gotten by chance uh if you had only ordered one coin odds are it
22:37
would have been a 63 uh but the price does start to go up when you hit the 64
22:43
well um with NGC it was 314 so from PC 341 314 to NGC and with CAC
22:52
um it turns out that you have 416 as the average price so you have a substantial
22:59
jump and that's taking both the coins into consideration
23:05
are you are you guys getting uh CAC like prices for your your NGC green holder
23:10
coins that Rico is uh putting we are and uh right now we don't have any in stock
23:17
i mean it's just because as I said buying the quality first you know you
23:22
look at the coin you see like a clean cheek a great strike no really distracting marks in the fields um on
23:29
both sides and sometimes with the Carson Cities especially you're going to have a cartwheel luster so they don't last
23:38
um as the same story is with the 64 grade PCGS average is 358 NGC is 338
23:46
with the um CAC average 420
23:52
now what I find also I should say about this going forward is that these lower
24:00
price coins don't often you're not often going to find them with the CAC sticker
24:05
um I know in talks with John he really doesn't want to grade$100 and $200 coins
24:12
because he would be inundated with them and you know obviously the amount it costs to grade them uh is prohibitive so
24:21
a lot of the auction prices that I'm looking at stretch back not just one year but maybe five years so but still
24:29
there's a a market increase in in the pricing of that and I would say if you're if you if you become a
24:35
sophisticated collector and you look at enough coins you'll develop the eye to be able
24:43
to I would say consistently be able to get a CAC sticker on a coin you know so
24:49
long as you're aware of what a dipped coin looks like or an improperly dipped coin looks like uh and so long as you're
24:56
like paying attention to things like luster originality you know die state strike
25:02
those types of things so I think the more you get familiar with the coins the
25:07
more you compare the coin you're buying against other coins on the market you're going to start to be able to develop that eye so that you'll have a higher
25:15
success rate when you submit to the CAC uh it's I always find that it's easier for sophisticated collectors to get a
25:22
higher percentage of CAC stickers to return in their submissions than it is for dealers because they're trying to
25:27
you know commercialize mini coins you know so so they the the uh the
25:33
objectives of the two different submissions are different one's uh strictly commercial although I don't
25:38
think dealers want to waste money sending inferior coins to CAC but I think a special a specialist collector
25:44
in any series is going to at some point develop and refine the skill to be able to know what a quality coin is in their
25:51
series and I I'll also say um this kind of a little secret that I probably
25:56
pretty much hasn't let out before but under a variety of different light sources you can see the differences in
26:02
the surfaces of these coins um like when I scanned a coin for an image on to put
26:09
on the website uh it's amazing the coin that did not was not endorsed by CAC can look funky
26:17
under a a scanner bed or like an ultraviolet light versus you know a
26:23
non a non a CAC coin so you know look different light sources actually can
26:29
help you think that's a factor of processing yeah yeah yeah do they do I mean too
26:36
much dipping as you mentioned earlier you know takes the life out of a coin although I don't think that they
26:41
necessarily you know judge by too much dipping but you
26:47
can tell I mean if the if a coin just doesn't have the life that it's supposed to have you know obviously it's been
26:53
processed too heavily and that that's the interesting thing about dipping too I mean for some coins one dip is too
26:59
much and for other coins true enough you know So well the early dollars I you
27:05
know you dip a coin that's like dark you know you've lost a lot of value right there and a lot of collector interest
27:12
coin becomes obscene at a certain point um 83cc 83 cc okay um do you want me to
27:19
just run through the averages yeah let's just I mean I think like like we were talking about how the 83s and 84 cc's
27:25
are pretty much like it's sort of like a you know they're they're basically siblings uh the 82 is certainly a little
27:32
tougher but the 83 and 84 these these were the the highest concentration of the Morgan dollars that got out to the
27:38
public were these two dates yeah when we get to the estimates that'll there'll be a different story on the pricing but so
27:44
355 is the average for an 83cc
27:49
PC63 300 is the average for an NGC
27:56
1883cc in 63 grade and um the CAC for
28:02
both services is 454 that's a pretty big difference for
28:08
64s average PC64 grade is 350 the average NGC grade is actually
28:15
379 um however there is a um a couple of numbers in there that
28:21
might actually throw that off like a $600 GSA remember I mentioned GSA is
28:27
going to throw it off $600 for that and another one at 456 for CAC 64 both services 570 and the
28:37
high was 1320 and I'll have to add like why do you have a huge price like that
28:43
well I bet you if we put pop up popped it up on the screen you'd see it has great color right another market
28:50
entirely um 84 cc moving on
28:56
PC63 312 12 okay that's the lowest out of any of them we had 82 at at 340 83 at
29:04
uh 3 um 50 and now we have 312 um for the 84cc and PC63 319 for the
29:14
NGC63 they're pretty much hand in hand and for the PCNG 63 uh grades 457 is
29:24
your average so you're paying a good 50% more for the CAC endorsement
29:30
do you find that like collectors are getting getting that uh some some portion of that back when they sell like
29:36
are you more interested as a as a an over-thecounter deal seeing CC Morgans of this uh these dates than
29:44
the nonCC's in with the CAC sticker yeah yeah yeah cac stickers yeah i I very rarely see
29:52
them with a CAC sticker i think that what has to happen because of of how much it costs right to you know to
29:59
submit them in and then to get them back shipping and all that i don't think a lot of people do it um there are people
30:06
out there who just insist that they do get everything CAC so maybe that's why they exist but you know with a coin at
30:13
$300 and you're paying how much to CAC that coin just about the same as
30:18
submitting it for grading so yeah like $50 you know all in maybe $70 after shipping you know it's like where's
30:25
where's the return on that um and so uh I covered the 64 grade no
30:33
did I yeah yeah mhm all right so 84 CC no 84 CC and 64 pc is
30:41
367 ngc 64 is 374 the CAC is 429
30:49
so there's a general theme here cac when you can find it gets more money and if you um I think if you're dealing with uh
30:57
somebody who recognizes that you're going to get that return it's kind of an
31:02
insurance policy if you put it at auction like Great Collections or through the STAX Bowers um you know
31:09
their collector's choice auction or the showcase auctions that they have uh you will find there's more collector
31:15
interest there yeah i I would caution people about uh uh tone coins a little bit um I
31:23
find that there's like there's a type of tone coin that absolutely every day of the week is worth more money and and
31:30
that's like really colorful doesn't have to be colorful on both sides it doesn't even have to be colorful over the entire
31:36
surface of either the obverse or reverse but it has to be vivid beautiful color
31:42
there's a difference between that and a coin that is tarnished which is to say that it's predominantly one color
31:50
perhaps it's like gold or brown or spotted or because you you'll see
31:56
sellers sometimes and these aren't usually professional dealers but sellers will you know call a coin beautifully
32:02
toned or rainbow toned when it's just tarnished and I went and I covered all
32:08
of what we just did and I we talked about the low prices right you'd be thinking that you'd be talking one grade
32:14
beneath the grade that we're discussing because of that very thing we don't buy coins for our inventory that are spotted
32:22
or have that tarnish or have that yellow if it has a rim toning you know
32:27
golden rim tone that's fine there are some people who will accept that but if
32:32
something draws your eye immediately like a spot in the ear or something like that you're like
32:37
"Wow I would put the coin down if I were you if I were looking to build this 50 coin set because that's the first thing
32:44
the next guy's going to look at when you're trying to sell it that's right so the color has to it has to be a
32:49
masterpiece with the color or we don't consider it beautifully toned uh yeah
32:57
yeah i mean you're going to have crescent you're going to have you know like or full moon toning you know like
33:04
with the colors and the color schemes are important um I've seen where coins
33:09
are toned on both sides realize astounding sums of money because that's a very unusual
33:17
situation all right so let's uh we're going to talk about I guess the the the caviar of the Morian dollar series
33:23
that's these estimate coins especially the early date estimate coins it's amazing when you think about how
33:30
difficult it was to get like the the the proper coining chemicals from the east coast to
33:37
California um and without the benefit of the Panama Canal well the
33:43
transcontinental railroad had established itself by then yeah but it's still it's a bumpy ride still yeah so so
33:50
uh but it's astonishing that uh this far away mint um was basically probably
33:56
preeminent mint in the United States when it was when it was uh making Morgan dollars these were the best looking
34:03
Morgan dollars that were ever made put Philadelphia to shame made made New
34:08
Orleans look like it was a rural backwater um don't even want to speak about the quality of uh I mean of course
34:14
the uh the Lanigan Charlotte never made silver dollars but their gold coins were pretty rough um but but these San
34:21
Francisco coins were just phenomenal a lot of dimples a lot of prooflike coins coins that won't earn those uh
34:28
characters uh classifications but still have booming blinding luster um lot of
34:36
razor sharp strikes i mean these are great coins and I think that that's what's always made them popular
34:42
i And I agree with you but I also think that even in the founding days 1854 being the first year um just think of
34:50
all the Central America gold that's come up that has that same sort of characteristic i mean they just never
34:57
seem to lose that ability to make a a great product well until they started
35:02
making Lincoln sense in the 20s all went to all went to crap um all
35:08
right so let's talk about the uh the San Francisco portion of our 50 coin set contains eight coins um so we're going
35:15
to have 1878 to 1882s inclusive uh we're going to get the 1890 and
35:21
1897s those are a little bit stretchy coins they're not going to be as cheap as the early dates and then we're going
35:26
to close it out with the 21s which is an unusual coin um and uh the uh collecting
35:33
uh community's uh understanding of the 21 has changed dramatically since the
35:39
60s that was a coin that nobody wanted they were so they were so common but as
35:44
we started to understand grading coin grading uh the 21D and the 21s became
35:49
more interesting than uh we initially realized uh but that's later we'll get to that one later so we're going to
35:55
start with the 1878s um so um it's a matter of like numismatic record that the first Morgan
36:02
dollars that were struck uh were struck uh in the San Francisco Mint they were struck on April 17th
36:09
1878 and uh by the end of the year San Francisco struck
36:14
9,774,000 of these coins which is a little bit more than what Philadelphia Mint was able to produce uh the reason
36:21
these mintages were so high is that Congress was mandating that the mint strike millions of these coins per year
36:28
uh to appease the silverites who uh wanted to see by metalism returned and thought that they were slighted when the
36:36
silver dollar was discontinued uh with the coinage act of 1873 in lie of the trade dollar mhm um so what we see here
36:45
is that most of the mintage of these 1878 S's uh and I'd say that probably
36:51
held true to the uh 79 80,81 and 82 most of these remain in storage for decades
36:58
which is why they're so plentiful in mintstate and uh and of course uh
37:03
they're no longer stored in quantity as they've been uh distributed uh but we we
37:09
start our story with the San Francisco coins with this very first issue so what what what do you think about the 78S
37:16
Ross um it follows the same line of thinking uh I think that where the PCGS coin for
37:25
this issue is going to be more desirable than the NGC coin um average for 63 PC
37:31
is 170 135 for NGC and for
37:39
CAC 175 but the 175 by the way that auction
37:46
analysis these are like the most recent 10 auction appearances that auction analysis goes
37:53
from 2023 to 2015 that's how few CAC
37:58
1878S coins in 63 grade has been made available at auction in 2018 there was a
38:05
$79,89 6971 that goes perfectly in what you were saying about how these coins
38:10
have appreciated in value because now uh you know they're trading for about
38:17
190 let's see yeah the CAC could be about a $200
38:24
coin yeah that's pretty good that's pretty good price performance yeah it's really
38:29
good and also be you know there's been some heightened interest in actually putting a first year of issue
38:37
1878 set together where you have the eight tail feather the seven tail feather reverse
38:43
7879 you have the um Carson City you have the San Francisco and then you have
38:49
the uh overdates the um um 708 tail
38:54
feathers weak and strong so we So when we get to the 1880 um I
39:02
think that I think the stri I'm sure go ahead have we missed the 64s okay okay
39:08
um uh NGC and PCGS are identical at 180
39:14
uh CAC at 258 and then we have 79s right right so so I
39:22
would say I would say that the uh 79 I would say the 79 80 and 81s I think are
39:29
like a smidge better than the uh 78 S's as far as the coins I've seen um you
39:34
mean quality qualitywise and I think the 80 81's probably the best of the best quality wise yeah right but uh but the
39:41
79s tend to tend to come really nice they do in my experience um 67 coin is
39:47
is a real sight to behold yeah so so interestingly uh for you cherry pickers
39:53
out there and I don't know how how successful you're going to be doing this but the uh 79s actually has two
39:58
different reverses and they're both red book varieties uh the second reverse obviously uh the scarcer of the two and
40:06
uh and and these are you know typically common through MS64 um so you know this is like one of
40:14
those coins honestly 79 80 81s i mean if I'm putting this set together I don't
40:19
know if I'm going with a three because there's so many fives that you can get it's a weird it's weird to me like
40:27
Yeah yeah yeah because it's almost I almost feels like it almost feels to me like you want to you want to be where the action is on a coin and you're
40:35
absolutely right about that because you know uh when you see a 65 you want that you want it when you see a 63 for an
40:44
extra $100 it's like wow I could have a 65 instead
40:50
i mean I'm glad that the set that you established you know with NGC that 50 coin set it doesn't matter what grade it
40:57
is you know you buy what you like right so and and maybe you're not like that maybe maybe you just want to get a
41:03
matching set but I'm I'm going to tell you right now an 1879 and 63 is not
41:09
going to look anything like a a a New Orleans 63 they're just not going to
41:15
look the same and and and so I don't know may May maybe if you really just want to stretch on one coin get the best
41:21
1881s or 79S you can find because at least that would be the coin you stare at all the time when you want to drool
41:27
over a coin we found that the 79s's are a little bit more difficult to find than
41:33
the 80s and 81s i for some reason I don't know i mean it just seems that there aren't as
41:40
many around there and if you go back into the boxes we have you know we might have 10 79 S's but we have 40 80 S's oh
41:48
that's interesting so what are the uh 79 S's going for now you know it's it's really it's kind of
41:55
headscratching because the average for 63 is higher than the average of the 64
42:01
is that just due to the volume of coins that are coming to market now or Well it's it's just the number i mean you know when you find somebody paying uh
42:08
264 168 for a 63 and then the last auction record for
42:14
a 64 was 145 it's got to be color or it's got to be a look but it goes back to saying you
42:21
know like you buy the coin i mean maybe these people stretched and maybe they are colorful but I'm doing the average
42:28
of the last 10 appearances and the averages don't lie you know from 125 to
42:34
140 you would think it'd be the other way around with CAC
42:39
however in 63 you have 218 and 378 so that makes more sense for
42:46
79s and for an 80s I think that the same thing apply well here you got $100 for a
42:55
63 two and a quarter for a 64 and then the CAC
43:02
differences 279 to 478 for 80s that was in
43:09
96 in in June of last year an 81S in 64 grade realized $5,280
43:18
wow you know one there's another one at a,000 and another one at 2600 so they're
43:24
not all created the same so I'm I'm going to throw you a curveball here Russ i'm on I'm looking at the recent sales
43:30
on eBay and I'm back at the 79s um there there are some banger 66 coins here for
43:38
like three to 500 bucks like really like sharp coins um but
43:44
there's also some really nasty looking coins in the same price range and I
43:49
think that that really comes down to like the collectors being you know like here here's here's example i'm just
43:56
going to describe it maybe I'll I'll I'll screenshot this and I can I can put the illustration up so you here's your
44:02
choice for $35 you can get a coin that's mostly brilliant but it's it's got dark black
44:09
and brown copper spots at 12:00 in Liberty's hair on Liberty's neck at 6:00
44:16
at the rim at 9:00 at the rim at 3:00 that sounds like a disaster or you
44:22
could pay 6 369 after 30 bids that first coin was a buy it now coin so the dealer
44:29
listed it and somebody bought it $35 the second coin had 30 bids and a PC
44:36
holder like Frost on all the devices it's like a white duck on a black
44:42
pond 69 and MS66 i mean I don't want to tell you what to do with your money maybe maybe
44:49
for some people 64 bucks is like three hours of work or something but I wouldn't pay $35 for that first coin
44:55
when the second coin was available for for 369 nobody's going to want it and I'll tell you you know I'm um I'm at the
45:04
New Hampshire show last Thursday and Friday and on Friday a guy comes up and he trades me um an MS64 Saint really
45:11
nice PC4 Saint and puts it down to a Carson City 20 he comes back and he wants to sell
45:18
me four more 63 saints and these 63 saints are the farthest cry from a a
45:25
black duck on a white pond or whatever you said as you can get and I had to refuse them even even at our published
45:32
bid price I just couldn't take them because I wouldn't want to be the guy who sells somebody those coins
45:42
i mean it's it's that eBay example right there they got to go somewhere and you
45:47
know it's a different market entirely yeah you you definitely don't want to like you don't want to be the dealer
45:52
that has a an a fixed price list out there marketing a coin and deliver that
45:58
coin but it's nasty because you're going to get it back like threearters of the time you send it out and it's just a and
46:05
then you've damaged your reputation you've uh you've wasted money and time you wasted the collector's time it's
46:11
just I'm afraid that this these coins are destined for a telemarketing operation to sell to somebody who's
46:17
never actually seen the coins before and we kind of anticipate or expect the coins to look like that you know and
46:24
then they find out years later when they go to sell it that well we really don't want it like in the case in my case or
46:32
they get a deep discount bid offer yeah yeah absolutely um I mean I've
46:40
never seen I honestly I've never seen coins like that in your case
46:46
so it won't do it all right the 81s i mean this is my favorite coin of the
46:51
series honestly from a from a look perspective um well like when you close your eyes and
46:57
imagine an 81S I mean first of all can can you identify this coin if someone
47:03
covered the date could you do you think you reasonably would be able to tell it's an 81S by look
47:11
well the booming luster is one thing it's going to like narrow it down to an 80 or an 81 but I think an 81 is like a
47:17
little bit darker field you know when you look at it i know it's hard to say darker with silver more contrast with
47:25
the luster I guess yeah or a deeper reflectivity yeah yeah yeah because you
47:30
know you are talking about the a year later they have perfected they've gone through 365 days of making one date and
47:36
now they're going on to make another so I would they maybe had a special way of polishing the dies before um they struck
47:44
them or keeping them polished because most of them look the same yeah they're
47:49
they're just phenomenal coins um and again like you know I know we're focusing on threes and fours but you
47:56
know if you're going to get a $400 you know tougher date coin why do you want a
48:02
70 $80 like coin that could come really awesome for $300 or $400 but like I said
48:07
it's a choice you're going to have to make um well if you're looking for one particular coin to give as a gift the
48:13
81S would certainly be on the top of the list right it wouldn't be necessarily for the 100-year-old grandfather but you
48:20
know like a 50-y year anniversary or something like that would might be appropriate or just to get any kid
48:27
interested in coins 80 81s would be a great great way to
48:33
start yeah uh so we get the uh well especially now that they're
48:38
they're remaking they're they're making tributes to the Morgan and Peace Dollars the mint is those coins look perfect
48:47
essentially because they are but they don't look like no Morgan dollar ever really look like that so if you want to
48:52
get a as close to perfect looking coin from the original Morgan dollar run the
48:57
81S as a gift along with maybe your annual gift of a you know get them their
49:03
birth year 2024 25 Morgan dollar tribute coin or if the mint continues to make
49:09
them every year you know you get them one of those but they but they get the original one from this this perfect date
49:15
uh so that they can compare the uh the the the the real thing against the modern version all right so all right
49:22
let's move on 82 this is the last of the uh the cheapies for the uh the the 1880s
49:28
from San Francisco um there was you know there were quite a few 83s that were struck too if you're
49:35
like one of those mintage looking at mintages in the red book uh but the deal with the 83s is that it's one of those
49:41
conditional rarities uh once you get to a mint state so it it doesn't that means that many of those coins would have
49:48
circulated or been melted over the years there wasn't a huge inventory of them that were released in mint state um so
49:55
those those wouldn't make our list because of that um but the I think the 82s is one of those overlooked coins
50:02
because the 81s is so popular and come so nice but I would say that the two dates are kind of equivalent in
50:08
availability but I would no you don't think so not at all no I disagree and I
50:15
only say that not from trading experience but I know how difficult it is to find 82s's here to put our 20 and
50:22
30 coin sets together all right tell me about it what do you got to go through to get them just we just don't find them
50:29
nice it's crazy i I mean they this 82s stands alone from the 79 80 and 81s in
50:37
my mind and and certainly you know Ryan who puts the has the program together here at Rare Co ryan Ryan Cook uh he's
50:45
always saying I'm looking for 82s's so what's it about it what do you think
50:51
because like when you look at the certified uh population reports you look at what was available how many bags are
50:56
distributed you wouldn't think there'd be a huge difference but what is it i honestly can't tell you but all I know
51:03
is that um you know we have a hard time finding the coins
51:10
so I think I I have I will say this i've seen more toned 82S's than I've seen 79
51:17
80 and 81 which then if you're selling white sets you have to dip and then like
51:25
uh send into the grading services or have them do the uh do the conservation
51:31
for you which gets into a complete hassle but you need the coin for the set
51:38
so then what what how does that impact the uh the price on the AI 82S then
51:44
uh one and a quarter to 270 but with CAC I see a lot more activity like um you
51:52
have $383 for 63 versus a non CAC at
51:59
128 and for a CAC 64 500
52:07
versus two uh sorry 500 versus uh
52:14
350 between the grades so that's a those prices are far greater than the 80 80 79 80 and 81
52:25
S's all right so uh let's we got two more uh or three more I guess we got the
52:32
1890s um so this is the uh I would call this a one of the reach coins in our
52:37
list of this San Francisco date run uh but I think uh I think this is one of
52:42
those underappreciated coins and choice to gem grades um Lavar Redfield I think had
52:48
about 20 bags of these uh but a lot of those are really banged up um a lot of
52:54
uh counting counting wheel marks uh were put on the coins when they were processed before they were distributed
52:59
by Paramount um and uh you know which is a shame because you know otherwise these
53:05
are usually well struck coins but there's a pretty big price jump I think when you get from 64 to 65
53:13
and then so so you're looking at the 34 grade is kind of like your your everyday man collector uh grade but it's still uh
53:21
this coin is still uh several hundred so what what what can you tell me about it is this a coin that uh you guys get a
53:27
lot of requests for at uh Rare Coil well we we get the request because we
53:33
we're constantly um selling other companies the sets that
53:38
we make you know so not in a 20 coin set not in a 30 but the 50 coin set this is
53:45
a requirement so we're that's where our demand comes from um so we are market
53:50
makers in all of these states but in particular you know these harder to find
53:57
the price um for 90s is going to be 50% higher than a common date in 63 grade
54:05
and it's going to be probably 100% higher than a common date in 64 grade
54:13
the average is 150 versus 275 for 63 and 64 and when you get to CAC you're
54:21
talking 235 to 355 63 to 64 so I mean it's there are
54:27
more CACs I think out there because the coin's value is greater and it just
54:33
seems to be more marketable if you buy a CAC to a thoughtful and intelligent
54:40
market participant but then again if you look at the coins like we were talking about
54:46
with the 80s the 81s and you buy what really appeals to you the chances are
54:51
very good that it's going to appeal to the next buyer when you sell it all right so uh country goes through a
54:59
pretty pretty uh pretty tough time economically in 1893 uh which is why the uh 80 1893 uh
55:08
CC and Smint coins are mega rarities um but the uh first date that we get is
55:16
sort of the penultimate of our San Francisco list where the coins become affordable again uh to the average
55:22
collector is going to be the 1897s this is another one of the Redfield
55:27
dates uh again he had over 20 bags of this date as well uh but you could you
55:33
could probably get this bag you know from uh banks and the treasury through the early 60s um and uh they were
55:40
distributed over time um but the coin still is kind of scarce in gem and uh
55:46
you know so the 34 grades are kind of the affordable date uh the affordable grades in this once you start getting
55:53
above 6566 it becomes it becomes uh you know definitely a coin you have to uh
55:58
spend some money on so uh would you you you would agree this is kind of like the 90s this is like one of the semi keys to
56:05
our 50 coin set here yes without a doubt in fact I think it's harder to find and
56:10
it's going to be more expensive than the 90s um in 63 it's a $200
56:18
coin in 64 it's going to be a $300 coin um and CAC is it's 240 maybe sort of a a
56:27
20% over under the 63 grade and it's 375 on the 64
56:36
so another 20% added to it which is a far cry from the 100% that or maybe more
56:42
that you're going to see with the cheaper coins maybe it's because they just don't exist um but at least it comes you can
56:50
you can isolate and be confident that it
56:55
a CAC is going to cost you 20% more than a nonCA either right
57:02
so uh we're going to get here to the uh to the last uh coin in fact uh actually I'm going to I'm going to double dip
57:08
here because I I think we we should we probably should talk about the Denver Mint coin too uh but we got we're like
57:14
on the 21D and the 21S Morgan dollars um so the the fact of the matter is that uh
57:23
during the uh World War I the United States Congress through its uh Lin Lee
57:29
program uh started to uh you know get involved in the war effort before it
57:35
actually got involved and one of the ways it helped the uh the British Empire was to sell it hundreds of millions of
57:42
ounces of silver which it um then replenished by statute
57:47
uh and that silver came from uh these unused uh silver dollars which were converted into bullion shipped over and
57:54
then they became struck by the the British into Indian rupees to sort of u
57:59
shore up the uh faith and credit in the their economic system uh part of
58:05
Germany's total war effort was to undermine the British currency
58:10
so uh in 1921 you know the war is over uh but the uh the the the price has come
58:18
due on on re restriking these coins that have been melted and uh so what do they
58:24
do they re resuscitate the dormant Morgan dollar which hadn't been struck
58:29
since 1904 and they start striking hundreds of millions of coins now at the
58:35
same time you know Faren Zerbe and other collectors at the ANA were hustling
58:40
around trying to get um some support to create the peace dollar a peace dollar
58:46
i'm not suggesting that the one that was made was the one they had in mind but they were trying to get a coin to
58:51
commemorate peace and they figured that this was just as good a time as any to do it uh so you know obviously by the
58:57
end of the year uh after hundreds of millions of Morgan dollars are struck the mint starts to experiment with
59:03
Anthony D francis's peace dollar design eventually they they strike some and uh
59:10
in 22 we start to see that as a circulating coin um the 21 coins I from
59:17
all accounts I got from the uh you know the old-timers who are depleting the
59:22
Treasury stockpile of coins is they wanted any date any bag but uh but the
59:28
21s um because like they just essentially were bullion coins there's so many of them there's no market for it
59:36
um they were created with completely new hubs so they don't they aren't exactly
59:41
like the same as the original 878 to to 1904 Morgans um and uh they are unusual
59:49
in the sense that the Denver Mint strikes its first Morgan and only Morgan dollar that year uh the Denver Mint
59:54
wasn't operational until the uh you know 1906 um and they weren't making Morgan
1:00:00
dollars then uh so you get the Philly strike which is got the highest mintage
1:00:05
uh you get the Denver and the San Francisco strike which you know have many many millions of coins
1:00:13
um but turns out the Denver and San Francisco coins are kind of
1:00:18
conditionally scarce in gem or superb gem grades which gives them a different
1:00:23
character than we ever anticipated before coin grading became a thing before then it was just they were junk
1:00:30
and now they're considered a little bit they're treated differently in the market um so um I think I think it's
1:00:38
kind of it's kind of a tough coin to get in Jim a 21s um you know it's not as tough as
1:00:45
some other dates but it's for a common coin it's it's not a common grade
1:00:51
21s I I'll say this that it's a really hard coin to locate that's nice because you
1:00:58
have that softness of strike you don't have it well struck up like you do have
1:01:03
some of the other San Francisco mint coins it's kind of flat but it often
1:01:09
times can take on a luster that you don't see you wouldn't expect especially when you compare them
1:01:15
to the 21 or the 21D um for 63 it's like $130 coin and for 64 it's two and a
1:01:23
quarter maybe um and the CAC prices would
1:01:28
be 160 again 20% more um and 275 another
1:01:35
maybe 20 or 30% more for a 64 grade and and you're going to find
1:01:42
pretty much a similar story with the Dint coins um so like I said this is the
1:01:48
50 coin set it's a marathon not a sprint um you know so I I just invite anybody
1:01:54
who wants to take on this this task to to do your research on each individual date before you buy them um you know be
1:02:02
judicious about the coins you you you uh pick uh best if you have coin shows in
1:02:08
your area or if you can travel to one to buy directly from a reputable dealer after you look at the coins in hand but
1:02:15
u you know there are opportunities uh with return privileges from many of the nationally known dealers including Rare
1:02:22
Koa that you can you can you can make a purchase and as long as you're not you know abusing the system that you know
1:02:27
they'll you tell them what they want they try to send it to you if it doesn't work out maybe get a different coin but um also if you want to buy them back
1:02:34
when definitely deal with somebody who wants to buy the coins back if you uh started
1:02:40
collecting your Morgan 50 set I would say when we did our first video you probably already ahead so um you know if
1:02:47
you're getting started now it's not too late silver's still cheap and uh these coins are are still available and you
1:02:54
know um it's an exciting time to collect indeed thank you Russ have a great week
1:03:00
you're going to a show uh Central States right yeah I got Central States actually this afternoon um running through the
1:03:08
week and that's going to be that's going to be a pretty interesting show for sure you got a big coin you're going to have
1:03:13
at your Bors your table i will have several i have two of the Kentucky Horde
1:03:20
1863 $20 gold pieces so one is they're both 63
1:03:25
grade one is Ced and one is not you ever You ever sell that gold coin we
1:03:32
were looking at i was looking at with that that collector at the show did he end up buying your
1:03:37
coin remember the one I I walked to uh I walked to the other dealer they wanted to compare it oh yeah very good yeah he
1:03:45
did buy it he bought the SS Republic 186420 so he bought he bought your coin he did
1:03:52
he did indeed and uh and now um he's on to uh he and and his wife very pleasant
1:03:59
pleasant people good to work with they're now on to buying a Civil War $3 gold piece right that was the uh that
1:04:06
was the uh the softest selling tactic I've ever I've ever deployed on somebody taking them to your competitor's table
1:04:14
telling them good and bad things about both coins and letting them make their own decision it's the right thing to do but you know what sometimes you can't
1:04:20
you can't beat a good story right all right Russ well good good i'm glad I was
1:04:25
able to help at least in some small way oh Charles you help out more than you know all right well take it easy have a
1:04:33
great uh uh trip at Central States and uh sell sell