US Silver Morgan Dollars. Carson City.

[Lindeman]

Just wanted to share my views on Morgans, and to see if there are others out there that have the full date run? I am trying from 1878 to 14, plus1921, but stuck with some tough years - 1893 and 1895.  I have a mixed bunch of mintmarks - covering Philadelphia (no mintmark), San Francisco (S), New Orleans (O) and the nostalgic ones from Carson City (CC). Oddly given the crazy high mintages from all sites in 1921 before the switch to the Peace Dollar, I don't have yet a 1921 Denver, though that should not be too hard to source . Tempting though it is, I am not attempting the full set - of all years / mintmarks.  I might try to accumulate a date run of CC Morgans though -  as they capture the imagination of collectors worldwide. 

Just in case anyone hasn't seen a Morgan in hand - here is a nice picture of the 1890 and 1891 CC Morgans side by side. Yes - the critics are right in that the design stayed the same and Liberty is no beauty, but there is something great about the substantial look and feel of these silver pieces of history. Oh - and because part of the appeal is the wide range of toning and ageing, you can handle them without worrying about the modern blight of milk spots! Having said that I keep mine in AirTite DF capsules ...just let these two out for a photo session. 

Enjoy. Anyone else a Morgan fan here ? 

Lindeman 

Just now, Lindeman said:

Just wanted to share my views on Morgans, and to see if there are others out there that have the full date run? I am trying from 1878 to 1904, plus1921, but stuck with some tough years - 1893 and 1895.  I have a mixed bunch of mintmarks - covering Philadelphia (no mintmark), San Francisco (S), New Orleans (O) and the nostalgic ones from Carson City (CC). Oddly given the crazy high mintages from all sites in 1921 before the switch to the Peace Dollar, I don't have yet a 1921 Denver, though that should not be too hard to source . Tempting though it is, I am not attempting the full set - of all years / mintmarks.  I might try to accumulate a date run of CC Morgans though -  as they capture the imagination of collectors worldwide. 

Just in case anyone hasn't seen a Morgan in hand - here is a nice picture of the 1890 and 1891 CC Morgans side by side. Yes - the critics are right in that the design stayed the same and Liberty is no beauty, but there is something great about the substantial look and feel of these silver pieces of history. Oh - and because part of the appeal is the wide range of toning and ageing, you can handle them without worrying about the modern blight of milk spots! Having said that I keep mine in AirTite DF capsules ...just let these two out for a photo session. 

Enjoy. Anyone else a Morgan fan here ? 

Lindeman 

 

[Gilver]

I am "Morgan" fan for a very long time and it's design is beautiful regardless of mintmark. For me CC mintmark doesn't enhance it's beauty except in monetary value so I always prefer any year MS piece over worn and beat up piece with CC mint mark.

[Micky9776]

I really like the Morgan dollar and peace dollar, I will have to get myself one of each for my collection

[sovereignsteve]

You already know I have a fondness for them

I would like to go for a full date/mint run but I'm sane enough to realise I will never get there as I'm not prepared to pay the high prices for the rare ones. Happy to pick them up as and when I can but do tend to favour high grade ones these days.

I don't have a CC yet but will give them some attention at some point, just too many other coins and series  to collect!

[Micky9776]

Is there much difference in price for a CC one compared to other mint marks ? I know it will depend on the grade of the coin but just a overall good condition one?

[Lindeman]

Glad to see the Morgan Dollar fans on the Forum!!

thanks for comments.   

Micky - as usual it depends on the grade and also the relative mintages, but all things equal the CC Morgans can be 2-3X more expensive than a P Morgan for example.  That's the case for an average mintages year - like the 1890 and 1891 I showed here, partly because the initial CC mintages were 2.3M and 1.6M, about 5x lower than the the other US mints for those years. 

Steve. - I agree on the futility of going fir the complete set....too much effort &$$ needed! 

Gilver - much as I do like great condition MS coins, I also love a CC Morgan, even the lesser grades.  

Happy Morgan hunting folks! 

Lindeman 

[Pampfan]

Being in The USA I have seen a big change in the US market for Morgan Silver Dollars.  The majority of the "oldtime" collectors who hoarded these coins with a passion are getting older and dying off, leaving their kin with a mass of coins which they will sell into the market place.  Most newer collectors/stackers like the coins but they spend their money on bars and other items.  There definitely is no shortage of coins coming into the market currently so rarer pieces could be had at cheaper prices.   

I've bought a few GSA Carson City Morgans and others but to put a set together of nice quality coins needs $$$.  

Who knows - we may see some similar effects to coins as was seen with stamp collecting, albeit not as severe.    

 

[Lindeman]

Interesting perspective on the passing generation of collectors Pampfan and the availability of good Morgans. True that when I occasionally visit the LCS when visiting the US (usually NJ or CA) there are no shortage of them - including the cased GSAs. Tempting to try the CC date run - not even sure why they attract such attention - I think for us European babyboomers we grew up watching Westerns and so CC sounds like an exotic old wild west town. After all it's still less than an ounce of silver - but that opens up the whole psychology of collecting [emoji3][emoji3]‼ if it's true that younger US collectors are less dedicated to old US coins than their predecessors that's good news for us in the rest of the world...


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[sovereignsteve]

2 hours ago, Lindeman said:

Interesting perspective on the passing generation of collectors Pampfan and the availability of good Morgans. True that when I occasionally visit the LCS when visiting the US (usually NJ or CA) there are no shortage of them - including the cased GSAs. Tempting to try the CC date run - not even sure why they attract such attention - I think for us European babyboomers we grew up watching Westerns and so CC sounds like an exotic old wild west town. After all it's still less than an ounce of silver - but that opens up the whole psychology of collecting ‼ if it's true that younger US collectors are less dedicated to old US coins than their predecessors that's good news for us in the rest of the world...


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I think it's just their relative scarcity.

[MaxShiraz]

I've got a few Morgans. Like others I realized early that a full date/mint set was a challenge that could take a lifetime. Not to mention VAMs which could consume multiple lifetimes.

So I took a different, achievable strategy - I focussed on collecting the whole 1878 set. i.e. the 8TF, 7TF, Rev79, 7/8 Strong, S, CC in decent grades (63/64)

For me that was achievable and interesting, and the money I would have otherwise spent on a lot of low grades I could put into fewer high grade coins.

If you read about the early days of the Morgan I think that's the most interesting year.

"Hey fellas, did you know that Eagles don't actually have 8 tail feathers"

"No worries, just put 7 over 8 and no-one's going to notice"

Maybe I'll get back to it and collect the CC set, but that's an expensive exercise, if achievable at all.