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Introducing The Morgan 50: 50 Morgan Dollars for Every Collector. Part II: New Orleans Strikes
Oct 13, 2023
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.
View Video Transcript
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[Music]
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yeah all right Russ we're back we got us our second installment here we uh if you
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watched our video on Monday you saw us go over 22 coins in the Morgan Dollar series from Philadelphia today we're
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going to talk about the New Orleans set it's a it's a great set but it's definitely going to be a different
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collecting approach than the Philadelphia coins these coins are not struck the same characteristics and
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we're going to get into that in total we're looking at about 16 coins and I
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did a little quick math before we got on here today and I'm thinking that you know we're going to be spending probably
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about two thousand dollars you know give or take a hundred here or there uh to get these 16 coins uh I
0:57
think I think it's safe to say you're going to be a little bit over a hundred dollars a coin on average but there are
1:04
a couple issues you may find here or there some of the lowering coins may end up uh for the grade may be available for
1:11
80 or 85 dollars um the thing is the New Orleans met
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as we know was uh established in 1838 this was one of the three minutes
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essentially that were uh the first branch in the United States uh The
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Spoils of Conquest if you will we get the New Orleans and all of that
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territory with the Louisiana Purchase and our fighting with the French we get uh Charlotte and Dahlonega mints
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after discovering gold there and uh Andrew Jackson's Administration essentially uh deporting the indigenous
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Cherokee Indians which ones were left uh and uh so uh the branch mitts are set up
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uh Charlotte and Dahlonega processed gold and New Orleans to process essentially foreign coin coming from
2:01
South America primarily silver coinage um students of History will also know
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that the Civil War was a turning point for these three branch mints uh Charlotte and Dahlonega ceased
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operations never to return uh New Orleans was also shut down in 1861 and
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uh only return because the mint needed the extra production capacity to strike
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these dollar coins so the New Orleans uh set is uh is the only Southern mint uh
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uh from the original Three that returned and it has a great history that goes from uh this this period all the way up
2:42
to the very early first decade of the 20th century where it makes some real great rare gold issues before it uh
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takes its final bow but for now we're going to look at their great million dollars starting in 1879 with 1879.0 I'm
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clean week editor Charles Morgan and I'm here with Russ Einstein a long time dealer expert in the field of Morgan
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dollars and an expert in the market so we're going to talk about this these coins these are all coins you can afford
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to collect we'll help you navigate this set so you can put it together and be happy with what you've accomplished so
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Russ let's talk 1879 now okay um 18790 is
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I think sort of an on an obtainity scale an identity scale
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uh is probably a little bit below average so it's frequently encountered
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but you're going to find a a group of heavy bag marks with the issue I mean
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because they pretty much just traded uh bank to bank in sacks of a thousand
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um there was a a lower than average mintage I think of 2.8 so therefore it's one of
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those coins that is considered scarce um in Mid-State grades and in choicement
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state I think that the premium yeah the premium is going to be as great as you'll see in
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a set of Morgan dollars like that what we're posing to put together
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um to give you an idea the I'm looking up the average auction prices at the
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moment and the high was uh 432 dollars
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low of 186 with an average of 286. and that includes one CAC example which
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actually didn't even was not that 400 price realized that was actually 360. so
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um these are this is this is the kind of like the key coin as far as value is
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concerned for this set that we're proposing and this this coin is one of those coins
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that is really difficult I think in gem grades and and that is that is one of
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the reasons why you see this like sort of this uh extreme kind of price and the uh even in Choice uncirculated
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um they used to call uh some of these coins like two beer dollars and the implication was is that the New Orleans
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Event would strike them they would get out in circulation but only circulate slightly again enough to purchase two
5:25
beers then they would go back be returned uh redeemed or whatever back to the government or put in long-term
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storage at the banks and the treasury ends up getting them back so when we get them we get these bags they're all you
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know they're all you know slidery type of grades two beer coins uh in truth I
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think silver coins wear a little slower than we you'll like to think so these
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two bear coins could have been in general circulation for three or four months before being redeemed or turned
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in uh but but that's the thing when we're looking for true mint State
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examples especially Jimmy coins they're very Elusive and and when that 65 grade
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is five six seven hundred dollars for the right coin those prices do trickle
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down into the lower grades um because uh you know anything close to being attractive has a premium
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and keep in mind how large um or comparatively speaking how large uh New Orleans was to Philadelphia at
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the time I mean even today New Orleans is a substantially small community
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compared to some of the major cities in the United States uh you know so uh I
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mean circulation you know it had to have been shipped these bags had to be shipped around a lot
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right and I think you would save them up the uh up the coast and not up the you
6:54
know through Appalachian Mississippi yeah through Apple H I mean uh anecdotal evidence I think uh my uh assistant
7:00
editor Hubert told me that his his parents actually had uh a a a small
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accumulation of million dollars and there are quite a few omit coins in there and they you know they they came from the West Virginia area so you can
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imagine that these are sort of going up in the sort of the rural South uh in areas where like maybe the Philadelphia
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coins would be spreading in the in the North and the Northeast and parts of like you know the maybe the upper
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Northwest but or our north central part of the country but uh the New Orleans uh
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mint was was basically servicing the South with Morgan dollars all right so now we're gonna move on to the the
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second coinless we're gonna we're gonna skip the 1880 oh that's that can be a very very pricey coin it's it's very
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rare in the uh upper Strat of mint State uh and and in that that that impacts us
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it's it's price down the grades the 1881-0 though is a very interesting coin
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as well this coin is also scarcity in mint State 65 and above but you do see
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uh coins in that choice uncirculated grade you're looking at a mintage of uh
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5 million 708 000 coins but uh some of these were available when the treasury
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was uh dispersing of its Holdings so uh these were coins that still kind of got
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around they weren't all melted down and uh and so they are still available in
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mint state yeah a curious amount of dive varieties
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too that PCGS and NGC recognize um but uh you know much like the
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Philadelphia coins uh right around this time we start entering into like the lack of
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a full strike these are uh much like you know the 1880 uh Ado and the 1879 uh are gonna always
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have flat strikes and to find a full strike is going to be a real challenge
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um the luster on the coins too is just not quite going to be there don't compare your costs and cities with
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your San Francisco's with your New Orleans mint coins um
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the luster and the bag marks are all there so as far as a value is concerned
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this is going to be an affordable grade in 63 the 1881-0 of the highest 228
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dollars um and that would have been a a die
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variety called the pummeled eye but for the most part we're looking at a trading range of between 130 and 90 dollars
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so the next state is the 18820 uh this is actually a really
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interesting coin uh because there's an opportunity that exists out there and
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although you'll seldom encounter this uh the the San Francisco mint was uh had
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their dies created for the San Francisco mint of this issue that the engravers in Philadelphia over stamped with the oh
10:07
mint mark and you can occasionally find this o over s uh if uh if a dealer or a
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bulk submitter didn't really take a a real close eye to it and those sell for quite a quite a tidy premium without
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that this is definitely one of the more affordable coins on the list with uh
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just over 6 million examples struck with many surviving in mint state
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yeah I would call it a common uh that the 83 and the 85-0 um but you made a good point that o over
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s has been around as long as I can remember as one of the first recognizable uh
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error varieties and it's easily distinguished with the naked eye too
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um and once again uh as far as varieties are concerned the 18820 has
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approximately 21 different varieties so it's not just the O over s that you
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might be looking for um exceptionally flat a weak strike and uh
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below average luster trading levels are similar to what the
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810 was with a high of 240 but that would have been a CAC coin and average trading
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range of 130 to 70 dollars uh 130 to 70 dollars
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so we get the the next year and the list is the 18830 again this is another one
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of the common uh New Orleans Mint issues uh you're probably looking at a total
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certified population if I was to guess between the two Grading Services of somewhere in the neighborhood of about
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250 000 certified mint State coins
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for all grades and and most most of these coins are going to grade out in
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the 63 range uh there's going to be a slight drop off when you get to 64. uh
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65 is tough uh and uh then from there on
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it's that becomes quite a scarce coin but in the 63 to 64 grade that's your typical coin again you're going to have
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strike issues luster issues um these are not gonna uh you know these
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coins on their best day will not look as good as the typical Philly strike and
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that that impairs their ability to get these ultra high grades right right same thing with the 830 uh
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I'm sorry the 82 of the 83 84 85-0 constantly you're going to encounter a
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flat strike um average bag marks and abrasions and uh
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average luster but you're also going to have of the in ms63 of about the 128 000
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coins that are certified in ms63 by both PCGS and NGC you will find a Coin that
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you like um the top price for CAC coin so far looks like it's about four hundred
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dollars but then again the average is 135 to 65. so you're right in that sweet
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spot of the common date price and a nicer coin is probably going to get uh
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over 120 000. the 1884 oh it's another common date
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about 9.7 million of these were struck uh quite a few probably 300 000 or so
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have been certified uh my impression of the 840 Russ is that uh of the New
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Orleans Mint issues we've talked about so far I think this one typically comes nicer I
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would say the average uncirculated example I've seen is probably about a half a point to a point nicer than the
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typical 1883 they have a slightly better look they still are elusive in the high
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grades um but I think I think this is I would maybe go this far but this isn't
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quite the 1881 S of uh New Orleans Mint Morgan dollars but it is it is one of
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the nicer issues that's commonly available you're right um and actually CAC has
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uh uh is um approved almost double the number of 83
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O's for this particular coin in uh in this grade which is kind of unusual so
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that sort of goes right to you know your comment about how how good they are
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um as far as in their uh in their state of preservation
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um some do appear in full strikes others do not
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um you're gonna have about 19 different dive varieties and uh strangely these
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coins are all over the board um as far as values are concerned but I
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think you can still count on the the 130 to us 57 to 60 dollar price range
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remember the 60 price range is going to be what we call scudsy it's just going
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to be probably an undesirable coin that's just been graded that really nobody would want to collect because its
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eye appeal is so poor however there are coins that will bring fifteen
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hundred dollars in this grade because of their beauty and their toning
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um so you just have to be don't be surprised if somebody quotes nine hundred dollars for a really nicely
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toned 84-0 uh that's just what the market brings with rainbow toning and things like that
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uh moving on we have the 18850 which I think also is one of the nicer New
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Orleans Mint issues and this is largely owed to the fact that so many of these
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bags survived into the 60s so when they
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were getting broken up they were being broken up by uh speculators and numismatic minded individuals uh going
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directly into coin collections and things like that so it wasn't a case of
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a handful of straggling coins uh you know being recycled and moved around and
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and then eventually making it to the numismatic marketplace so these sort of were bag fresh when we started to see
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them come into the market in the 60s and 70s
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wrote I think if we um had to split hairs between these early new orleansman issues uh this is
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probably the best one out of the preceding two or three that you're gonna find for strike and uh kind of eye
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appeal but again it's gonna it's gonna range between the
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price of 125 130 as a high uh as a high average uh versus 70 as a
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low average uh some coins will realize two or three hundred dollars but they're either going to be a variety of which
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there are approximately nine known uh or it's going to have nice toning
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all right moving on our lists were up to the 1887-0
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um this is a one of this is I along with the 1879-0 uh the toughest uh coin on
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our list of New Orleans meant issues I'm not even going to really get into the
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amazing 1887 over 60 which is one of the top van varieties because I'm pretty
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sure those have probably been all picked um and you'd have to get one on the secondary market for sure nuts not so
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you think so you have an example no no I I was uh about three years ago
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we were in Nebraska at the Four Corners there and there was a collection a guy
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had about eight safes in his barn he had a whole bunch of rolls of silver dollars
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and sure enough four of those roles were all 86 over uh seven over six O's it was
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amazing I was like one two three twenty There Was 80 of them it was fantastic so
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yes scarcer to find but not impossible all right so so I've been proven wrong
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uh scarce are defined but not impossible what are those what do they sell for about
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the seven over sixes yeah uh nine hundred thousand dollars
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something like that on average wow do they typically come any sort of way or
18:49
are they do they have a distinct look to them that die merge just nope I mean you just
18:54
look at the date and you automatically can see there's something going on with that seven you know that little curve of the base is kind of at the bottom of the
19:01
seven and you yeah but you know what it's these coins are big enough so that you can actually
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do this without the use of a loop I mean if you know dive variety collectors if
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they're constantly doing this you know doing this doing this when they're looking at someone's collection or a
19:18
dealer's showcase it's going to get tedious um the dollars help because of the size
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and you can actually pick out a seven over six pretty quickly if you know what you're looking for same with the oil of
19:30
Russ mint mark it helps to have the loop but you can you can almost with good eyes you can make out that too
19:38
how frequently Russell do you say that dealers are I'm not necessarily talking about like
19:44
your specialty dealers but just your your typical dealer I mean how frequently are they looking over their
19:49
material like this for varieties and things like that is that is that a something that just comes with the
19:54
business or does that take a a different degree of attention that isn't commonly
20:03
undertaking it's uh it's a pretty good question I you know I think that if you
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were uh if you had an employee who sold the role of 1887 oh men
20:16
Morgan dollars and it was later find out that they were all 87 over six element dollars
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that's grounds for some sort of uh termination um I know of some very large firms that
20:28
actually make their professional numismatists look at every single coin
20:33
to make sure that uh varieties are not being overlooked they're maximizing the value of the coin that they have in
20:39
their hand on the other hand look at all the Mom and Pops brick and mortar pawn shops
20:45
things like that they don't know what they're looking for the the they don't know the coins the way some
20:52
collectors and and dealers do so I think it's still possible to find a treasure
20:58
in in an attic cufflink case or something like that as long as you know
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what to look for well well it makes me wonder I mean you know how I frequently dealers rely on
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the third party Services you know when to to basically make the product you
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know so the thing is it's like variety attribution services are kind of like in
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the minority of all the attributions are great that are being done so you can get
21:28
you know unless it's like a 1942 over one Mercury Dime or something which is like you need it on the holder there are
21:36
many varieties of coins that just aren't even like attributed at all it's just he
21:41
said like a bus half dollar in for grading they're they're not breaking it out unless you pay them for it they're not telling what Sheldon number your
21:48
Larson is they're not they're not really breaking these down they're not really telling you what van you have unless you
21:53
specifically ask for it and a lot of you have to pay for it yeah you have to pay for it and then often and oftentimes you
22:00
sort of have to tell them what you are looking for anyway when you submit the coin and then they determine whether or
22:06
not you have what what you what you think you have so so if most coins are sold without any
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um third party telling you what the variety is like why why
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would we assume that dealers are even looking at these coins in the first place well here's an interesting anecdote um
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first of all if you don't click the variety or check the variety box on your submission form
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you're right whatever you put in there if they agree with the date they're going to get you're going to get back a
22:36
date with a grade and here's the anecdote so I from a major company and I won't
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say what I bought an 1808 five dollar gold piece and it was actually as I
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recall I think it was an old green holder okay so it was certified some time ago without going through the variety
22:54
attribution this dealer who sold it to me for eight thousand dollars left four thousand
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dollars on the table because it was in fact in 1808 over seven
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so uh it helps to know what varieties are out there especially those
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varieties that make a difference in value I'm not going to say that that 8 over 7 score occurs all the time because you
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know it doesn't but to be aware of it and to know when to jump on it is really
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important and so that would have been a thing you would have been aware of when you made that purchase was that a key
23:31
factor in your decision to buy that coin is that you knew that it it was that variety I bought it as an 1808 and sold
23:39
it as an 1808 but when I saw it was in 1807 I couldn't sell it as an 1807
23:45
because it was as the way I looked at it it was not attributed correctly so I had
23:50
to go out and find another 1808 for that particular client but in the meantime the 1808 over seven you know something I
23:57
actually went back to the dealer I said you sold me in 1808 over seven and it's one of the good guys and they
24:03
said look you know what you scored we don't want it back you paid for it but thank you for telling us I don't know
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what happened you know in the back room that day but I'm sure somebody got some
24:14
sort of repercussion for that right well better that than a Stella or something
24:20
I don't know if any many varieties of the Stella but if a flowing hair was sold as a as a uh so there's a falling
24:29
here that would be a problem right yeah all right so the next actually wait a
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minute there is a variety of Stella I know we're getting off on a tangent but apparently isn't don't you know the
24:42
1879 flowing here aren't there um certain die lines that would indicate that it's one of the first 15 or 25
24:49
struck yeah but then the restaurant re-strikes yeah I believe I mean yeah so I mean and
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how many people know that the people with the money [Laughter]
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all right so uh moving on we have the 1888-0 Morgan dollar
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one of my uh one of my all-time favorite dates because of the different dye varieties of the uh of the coin
25:18
um I think earlier we talked about a Scarface we talked about uh we didn't
25:24
talk about the hot lips which is actually a major variety that sells for
25:29
multiples of what a just a regular coin does so 1888
25:34
here's all stack of hot lips by the way there's like 15 of them here at the
25:39
office where'd you get all those yeah yeah a
25:45
friend of mine Rob ezerman hold still hold still yeah something to us okay I
25:51
can read hot lips but I can't see it but yeah yeah that's amazing yeah yeah he he was uh he was buying them in all sorts
25:56
of grades apparently you can identify the hot lips even an AG
26:03
and uh so I gotta send these back to him that reminds me but uh yeah yeah so we did it we did a piece on these
26:10
um that's pretty cool but anyway so PCGS recognizes hot lips they recognize the Scarface we were
26:16
talking about early die States and things like that so 1888.0 is one of
26:21
those dates that you know I don't mind if anybody does this at my table because they're looking for
26:27
uh probably close to I would say a dozen or more different types of varieties for
26:33
the coin um but when it comes down to the coin itself it
26:39
has a trading range of 125 to 80 dollars and uh I think the high Market Watermark
26:45
would be 160. so it it falls into the that less uh the less expensive variety
26:53
um for the set
26:58
yep the 1889 and move on to the 1890.
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um this is a a date with a message of over 10 million 700 000 coins uh but as
27:10
as often as the case with these New Orleans strikes usually really weak
27:16
strikes here um and this is one of the real reasons why you don't see too many attractive
27:23
examples in mint State they tend to be washed out and flat
27:28
but not only that but you know in ms63 grade you have a 10. of the coins graded that
27:36
you have for the earlier dates we've been discussing like there's only 9 000 in both services
27:43
and it's almost evenly divided I mean I think there's a little more of the PCGS than NGC but here we have it as a part
27:50
of this set I never could quite understand the ratios if it's a if it's 10 times as
27:56
rare as in 830 yet sells for two or three times the price maybe twice the price why wouldn't anybody be buying
28:02
these things like on mass I don't know anyway yeah in fact actually you can use it you
28:08
can sometimes find these in a real deal 70 80 bucks is an unusual to see them on
28:14
eBay or something like that yeah yeah I mean I I don't know it's it's uh at some
28:19
point in time the market might might get so sophisticated that it actually kind of does one of these things I saw it
28:26
happen with uh as the bullion spot gold price started Rising like
28:32
1914 s 1950 Nest Saints started skyrocketing higher than the common date
28:37
Philadelphia coins so this could happen the same this could happen with the same uh this price performance Could Happen
28:44
similarly with uh scarcer Morgan dollars
28:50
um you do have 10 million minted so you know at 10 million you've got a whole
28:55
lot more than the earlier ones but apparently they just didn't exist uh flat strike weak ear expect the worst
29:03
um heavy bag marks and moderate abrasions does have some varieties but not some notable ones
29:09
and um again talking about price here we're looking at uh
29:16
maybe 300 as the high but an average of 190 versus a low of maybe 170.
29:23
so so Russ like when we're dealing with the coin coins that typically don't come nice
29:29
like what what tools do collectors have in order of figuring out what what the
29:36
nice versions are for that type I mean if everything comes kind of bad in the
29:41
first place and they and you're never going to get like a perfect strike like
29:47
how how do you kind of get the best of the worst if you will
29:53
well there's there's no substitute for experience
29:59
and uh coins that are certified make it easy I mean if you look at 65 grade coins
30:05
let's say we're talking about the 1898o you're going to a show or you're going you're looking at an
30:10
auction catalog and you can compare and contrast the same coin but in different grades that is certified by PCGS it's
30:18
almost like a a great it's almost like a litmus test on how how to train your eye to create the
30:24
coins if you pay particular attention to the strikes and things like that what you're
30:30
going to find is that when you do when you are doing counter a coin for sale
30:35
you're going to recognize it for what it is and therefore you're going to have more confidence in buying it
30:43
yes I guess that's the thing it comes really down to a pattern recognition skills you know if you know what the
30:51
flat hair usually looks like you know what the flat um vegetal uh material is in the in the
30:58
Hat if you know what the flat chest piece looks like the more you see that when you see things that are slightly
31:05
out of that box kind of like a 1950s Jefferson nickel how flat they are in the back when you see any detail you
31:13
know then you say okay well this this this is A Cut Above what I'm used to seeing so
31:18
um that those become the coins maybe you try to gear your eye towards right right
31:27
you definitely you definitely are going to be in for a different experience uh buying some of those nicer estimate
31:33
issues uh versus buying one of these these coins if you if you bought an
31:39
1882 S the same day you buy your 1890 oh uh in the same grade and you're looking
31:46
at both coins side by side your your eye is obviously going to go to the estimate coin
31:53
um but it's probably it's probably a good idea to like look at a number of omen coins before you start buying
32:00
and the other thing is this is that I mean provided that you are getting
32:06
acquainted with two or three dealers who care about uh some sort of a
32:11
relationship with you you know that may recognize you at a show or you know takes your phone call returns an email
32:19
your downside risk on your first purchase of a coin is going to be 10
32:25
possibly 15 percent you know so it's not the end of the world you still have value in a coin
32:30
that at some point in time you might want to replace because you just found a nicer one
32:36
so I don't know any greater lesson in learning than to make a mistake it's not
32:41
really a mistake but so if it costs you 15 or 25 dollars
32:46
to jump from one coin to another so what yeah yeah that's the way I look at it
32:53
yeah and it's it's funny too because like you know when I when I built uh when I built my registry Set uh of
33:00
dollars um there were coins I was quite happy with when I purchased that later ended
33:07
up out of the set because I found better coins and it wasn't it wasn't like a
33:12
situation where I felt like I had made a mistake with a coin that I was getting rid of it was just that was the best
33:19
coin available in the coins I was looking at the time I purchased it and I
33:24
was happy with it but circumstance would dictate that another coin came along
33:30
that really caught my attention and that second coin must have been really nice because it knocked out a coin I I really
33:36
liked already and so in many cases and this is the thing that happens as collections mature uh you'll find as
33:45
your personality and the personality of the set develops you'll say okay well I really like this coin but it's not right
33:51
for this set because this or that and and we're talking right now about coins
33:56
that are 100 to 300 uh but you know Russ as somebody who's helped build very
34:02
expensive collections for high-end collectors that there will be opportunities that you have to get to
34:09
know their collection and they'll call you maybe and say Hey Russ I'm really interested in buying this coin and you
34:15
could make your percentage off of it selling it or getting it from them but you say no you don't want that coin that
34:21
coin's not right for your collection and it's all a matter of the fact that like once you understand what someone's
34:27
collection is that things just because they need them they come to the market they may not have the the coin may not
34:34
fit with the rest of the material they have or it may not be what they should
34:39
be getting considering what they've already purchased you know so there's there's this situation that develops
34:45
even at the upper end of the market where the the skill as a dealer is to get clients not to buy coins
34:53
so that when the right coins come along you say okay this is the coin that you've been waiting for
34:59
exactly yep
35:05
all right let's move on the 1898 oh so we skippa quite a few years here uh you
35:12
know United States goes into a pretty significant depression around 1893 when
35:19
all the chickens come home to roost the value of silver uh relative to Gold that
35:26
gets out of whack and the treasury starts to deplete its gold Holdings
35:32
um but the economy recovers there's some changes in law uh and so by 1898 instead
35:38
of the 10 11 million coins we were seeing uh the New Orleans puts out 4.4
35:43
million coins still still a hefty amount but nowhere near the peak production years
35:50
yeah I mean 92 3 4 95 96 97 they're all Rarity in their own
35:58
right uh some more than others um 95 I was usually bought in circulated
36:04
grades but yes you get back to the 98.0 and uh I think that you you find a
36:12
majority of these coins are going to be a full strike issue they're not as uh as
36:18
poorly struck as the the ones earlier um there are some die varieties but maybe
36:25
12 but they're more inconsequential I don't know of any specific varieties that come out uh come right out and say
36:32
I have a 50 premium over a common date and it is also one of the more uh
36:41
commonly encountered Morgan dollars out of the entire series with uh an average price of about a
36:48
hundred dollars maybe 120 and a low of 70 with a high of maybe 150.
36:55
right and that was a coin that was represented uh in the treasury uh hordes of the 50s and 60s which is why so many
37:03
Choice coins survive and with a good amount of luster and you know really at
37:09
that point you're looking at things like bag marks and and other types of abrasions that happened because these
37:14
things were moved all over the place so we move on to the 1899 oh this this
37:19
coin was actually considered uh quite scarce despite the fact that 12 million
37:25
290 000 were struck uh if you were an American coin collector in the first
37:32
half of the 20th century the early part of it uh this would have been one of the
37:37
expensive coins and probably would have had a a decent uh amount of interest if it showed up at an auction but as the
37:44
treasury bags were open quite a quite a number of these were just in long-term storage and were released so this this
37:51
is relegated back to um I wouldn't necessarily say it's a
37:56
common date but it's it's on that second that second tier uh of Morgan dollars uh
38:04
coins that are in that one to three hundred dollar price range um and uh that's because uh you know we
38:10
were able to uh pull quite a number of these out of the vaults
38:15
right and far more of them are above average strikes then you're going
38:21
to find with some of the other issues um and because they've been in stocks
38:27
thousand a thousand face bags you're gonna find a moderate amount of bad
38:32
marks rather than circulation bag marks um there are approximately 15 different
38:39
die varieties uh one of which is is quite extraordinary it's a micro
38:44
um oh mint mark and uh a micro oh mint mark is going to sell
38:50
for over ten thousand dollars um however why would itself well there
38:56
aren't that many of them uh but it's well worth trying to cherry pick obviously if you can find one I think
39:03
PCGS and NDC have have a combined total certification of close to 100 coins as
39:10
opposed to the tens of thousands of a non-micro that they have they uh have certified
39:17
um and uh once again average price of about 125 with a low
39:25
price of 75 to 80 and a high of 150.
39:31
foreign so now we start to get into the 20th century issues and this of course uh
39:37
will be the last few years of the New Orleans minute striking Morgan dollars as
39:43
um many people collect the series they're aware uh the coin was struck more or less continuously from 1879
39:49
through about 1904 and then after that it took a break until it came back in
39:55
1921 but when it comes back in 1921 the New Orleans men has already been
40:01
deactivated so there was no 1921-0 dollar so we have the 1900 1901 1902 and
40:10
1904 coins to go through these will be the last four coins from New Orleans on
40:15
our list of 16. uh the 1900 o has one of the more fascinating
40:21
numismatic errors that you're going to see this was the famous o over CC mint
40:29
mark error um the the Carson's that he meant was long gone by 1900 well maybe not in long
40:36
gone but it had been gone for a few years but apparently they deployed that dot that mint mark punch uh erroneously
40:43
and then covered it up this is just one of the classic varieties for people to
40:48
collect right right and it's affordable too I mean within reason I mean of 63 coins
40:56
right now trading for maybe 15 or 1700 or something like that and you can just
41:01
technically see the O punched over the CC very cool coin especially the Carson City mint
41:07
collectors you ever see these slip through the cracks like in regular holders so nobody
41:13
paid attention not as much as others know um
41:19
I'm kind of always I always like a whole a um
41:25
a coin like that out of inventory even though they might be fairly common because it just seems to me that there's
41:33
such a great demand for them that I always want to put them up on the website for sale
41:39
so what can we say about the 1900 uh oh the one that is not the uh scarce
41:45
variety the original that's right uh actually there's far more in addition
41:51
to that there's an average of 26 different types of varieties but most of
41:57
the uh most of the stripes are going to be poor to average uh it just does not exist very unreasonably in fact I think
42:04
that talking about the over CC I think that strike is quite a lot better
42:10
than the regular Omen only because of when and how it was struck
42:16
um again uh the value is pretty consistent with a 75 to 80 low 125 dollar average
42:24
with a hundred and fifty dollar that's a high price over the past uh 24 months
42:31
all right 1901. uh 13 million three hundred and twenty thousand coins are
42:36
struck in this year uh this is one of the more common dates the New Orleans Mint issues
42:43
um much more common I think but it really a really poor poorly struck a poorly
42:50
manufactured coin I wonder if I wonder if they stopped
42:55
caring like the equipment was getting old the networker sort of like you know must have been hot well it
43:03
isn't it is it is New Orleans after all right
43:08
I mean the end was in 1909 right uh I mean in fact it pretty much was in 1904
43:17
um because then you have that's when they stopped the silver dollars and then they made the five dollar go piece and
43:22
the and the uh um yeah the five dollar goal piece in 1909
43:29
that was it and if you've ever been to New Orleans and actually taken a tour of the the men it's all brick and it's like cramped and
43:38
it's tiny and uh I can only imagine that in May May June July August and part of
43:44
September that was a better place to work yeah I can't I can't imagine the
43:50
the conditions these guys had to work under uh so the 1901 coin is another another
43:56
uh very difficult uh coin that was practically impossible to find in mint
44:02
State until the treasury Hoards released coins so this would have been another coin that precipitously declined in
44:09
value around the 1950s 1960s like the 1903 especially the 1903 was
44:16
considered an ultra Rarity right and then they found bags and then it it
44:21
got reduced in price it's interesting the way they sold those coins too Russ is uh they found a bag of
44:28
them but they didn't announce that they had a bag of them they kind of trickled out until it became obvious that they
44:34
had a lot of the you got to kind of wonder who is behind that
44:41
well I think if I had a bag of 1804 dollars I don't think I would tell anybody I had a bag of them for a little
44:46
while I don't think you could I don't think you could possibly get rid of that in your lifetime
44:53
I think you'd have a difficult time even getting them uh certified I think since they they didn't make them in mint State
45:01
um unless uh unless you believed they did and they they got sank off the shores of Tripoli uh they didn't make
45:07
them in mid state in 1804 and then I I don't know how anybody would authenticate them if uh somehow they
45:12
turned up that's a good point that's a very good point
45:19
it certainly would make news national news for that matter so the uh the 1901 has got the same
45:25
thing going for it you can figure out 125 for the High
45:32
um uh 75 to 80 for the low and then the average is being you know
45:38
150 for an exceptional piece
45:46
do you think you have the prices of the New Orleans mint coins uh performed at the same basis as the Philadelphia and
45:53
San Francisco strikes or is there a do they do they behave differently in the market due to their quality issues
46:01
I'm not aware of them uh behaving any differently
46:07
um I think that you know when we talk about coins that are not the 1921 issue
46:15
they're all pre-21 um and an ms63 grade
46:20
I don't think people distinguish between them as as the way you're referring to on the other hand if you get into the
46:28
higher grades yes I think you're right about that you know starting in 64 in Emma 64 going to ms65 and certainly an
46:36
ms-66 there are great distinctions between the the mints and the values
46:44
all right so we have two coins left we have the 1902 o here
46:50
um the mint struck eight million 636 000. so this is uh not necessarily at
46:56
the top of the register of the total output per year for New Orleans but uh one of the more common dates and uh many
47:03
were saved in fact actually this is this is an example where although it can be pricey uh once you get to gym or above
47:11
there are more 67 67 plus type coins for the state than there are for most of the
47:17
New Orleans Mint issues so we were able to get some fresh bags out in the 50s and 60s that just had coins that weren't
47:24
really kicked around that much so this is a date that you you will occasionally see really nice coins
47:30
I agree absolutely it also you know from
47:36
1898 to 1904 it has the worst strike the 1901 I was a very close second but 19020
47:44
it's definitely got the worst strike um heavy bag marks multiple abrasions that sort of thing
47:51
um and as a result you can expect that it's going to trade the same way as
47:57
um the other common issues 120 for an average price 75 to 80 for uh the low
48:05
and about 150 for an exceptional coin
48:10
yeah we close out with the 19040 this is another one this was a another one of the great rare issues in the early 20th
48:18
century even some of the great collections that were sold before the
48:23
50s may not have included a mint State example of the 1904.0 which is crazy to
48:29
think uh today it's not considered that rare of an issue because the ones that
48:35
were saved didn't get released into the circulation until the 1960s
48:40
so uh those bags come out they crash the market but uh the interesting thing is
48:46
the market absorbs everything and over time the prices start to go up and
48:51
that's true for this issue as well once you get to the choice and gym grades they start they start climbing and they
48:58
keep climbing up to uh the superb gym grades right right on
49:05
um I've seen some interesting proof-like and deep a few deep mirror proof like of
49:11
the issue which are very difficult to encounter but um nevertheless in ms63 Choice brilliant
49:19
uncirculated you're still going to have 10 000 I'm sorry 110 000 coins certified
49:25
by both services from which to choose and um while you're choosing it
49:31
you can keep in mind that it has the same average value of 125 with a low of
49:37
about 75 and with a PQ grade price of about 2 and 225
49:45
dollars and you see quite a few vams for the state
49:51
uh the approximate um number of dive writers is 10.
49:57
but you know by all means check on uh vamworld.com which we've mentioned in the first uh web uh web web podcast
50:06
uh to check to see which ones make a difference not all of them make a difference you have the you have the hot
50:14
fifth uh let's see the hot 50. the uh top 100
50:21
and then you have a hit list 40 or something like that I think
50:27
yeah I think there's like four or five like main sets of Vans with their own
50:33
right following if you will um yeah so so that that does it for this
50:39
this episode I want to thank Russ taking the time uh doing some of the market research uh to discuss these coins uh
50:48
and again we'll we'll have the we'll have our checklist of the 50 coins uh from the set that uh everybody can put
50:54
together um um I would recommend that you look look over the set before taking a dip
51:00
into any of these areas um may not be a bad idea if you decide to do it to Target the most valuable
51:07
ones first because you can get the most expensive ones out of the way before they go up in price anymore uh but it's
51:14
good to you know challenge yourself but also pace yourself you don't have to get every single one of these coins at one
51:20
coin show this could be a a three-year five-year project if you want it to be and it'd still be richly rewarding in
51:27
our next episode which we'll publish on Friday we're going to look at the estimate coins the the one demon coin
51:33
which is the Denver Mint 1921 D and we're gonna look at uh two CC mint coins
51:38
that every Morgan Dollar collector should have in their collection so we'll be back on Friday and uh Russ and I will
51:45
take you through that uh thank you so much Russ for taking the time
51:50
there you go there's one that's toned
51:57
84-0 what's the retail value that's that's
52:02
375 dollars with that sounding but there there's yeah there there's the NGC green holder
52:10
and you see the peripheral toning I just I thought I'd bring that out just so that you could see that there are
52:16
exceptional examples but this is only you know one-sided so that would have
52:21
been a contact with it and a probably a bag toning then what when you say with a
52:26
one-sided kind of looks that way yeah yeah that could have been protected yep if it was in a weight Raymond holder
52:32
both sides would be tone right yep so all right Russ thank you very much
52:39
you're welcome Charles good to talk with you