by Greg Reynolds for CoinLink

On Wed., July 30, a set of Morgan Silver Dollars traded at the ANA Convention in Baltimore for $2.035 million. Morgans were minted from 1878 to 1904, and again in 1921. While the focus here is on the nature of this set, options for acquiring Morgan Dollars that are dramatically less expensive will also be discussed.

Most Morgan Dollars are not expensive and a low-grade set can be assembled for less than $20,000. Indeed, there are many Morgan Dollars that are not rare in most grade ranges, but are extremely rare in MS-65 and higher grades; these are ‘condition rarities.’ A Morgan Dollar set becomes extremely expensive when the buyer seeks these condition rarities.

All of the coins in this set are graded as MS-65 by either the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) or the Numismatic Guaranty Corp. (NGC), except ten or so dates that are graded MS-66. Usually, a ‘date’ refers to the combination of the year on the coin and the location of the Mint that manufactured the coin.

This set had an 1880-O (New Orleans Mint) Morgan that is PCGS graded MS-65. While the PCGS has graded more than 7500 1880-O Morgans in total, including more than one thousand in MS-64 grade, only twenty-three have been graded MS-65 and zero have been graded higher than MS-65. This total of twenty-three may represent fewer than sixteen different coins, as some may have been re-submitted in hopes of receiving a MS-66 grade.

While finding an 1880-O is easy, finding one that is PCGS certified MS-65 may be very difficult. An 1880-O may sell for around $25 in EF-40 grade. Over the last two years, several PCGS graded MS-64 1880-O Morgans have been auctioned, and most realize a price in the range of $1495 to $2300. A PCGS graded MS-65 1880-O could bring anywhere from $18,000 to $40,000 at auction in the middle of 2008, though none have been auctioned since Jan. 2007.

Most (or all?) of the coins in this set were acquired privately rather than at auction. This set was assembled by an anonymous collector known as “Lord Baltimore.” He was guided by Bob Green, who is the president of Park Avenue Numismatics.

The first coin in the set was acquired in 2001. The last coin was obtained at the Winter FUN Convention in Orlando in January 2008. (more…)

Back in the Old Days of coin collecting (say 1998…) we dealers continually preached the mantra of the Five Year Hold. What the Five Year Hold said was that in order for your coin purchases to have a chance to mature financially (a euphemism, of course, for making a little dough…) you needed to hold your coins at least five years. But in the Age of the Internet, this maxim seems to have gone the way of the numismatic fixed price list.

Revisiting this maxim in 2008, perhaps our sage advice wasn’t so anachronistic after all. I personally believe that many collectors have been fed unrealistic expectations by auction companies and large retailers and that they honestly believe that a coin they purchase in 2008 can—and should—be flipped in 2009 for a profit.

It’s hard to argue with the auction companies when they show you results like the 1805 quarter dollar selling for $402,500 in 2008 after bringing $74,750 exactly a year earlier. I mean every coin in this market is going to show a 5 ½ fold increase in a year, right?

I would contend that for every one of the incredible grand slams like the aforementioned 1805 quarter, there are other coins that show minimal appreciation after a short holding period. In fact, it is more likely that the typical coin is actually worth less after a year than its purchase price. Which is why the Five Year Hold might not be such a bad strategy to (re)consider after all.

Let’s say that you decide to put together a set of Type One Liberty Head double eagles. If you came to a specialized dealer and said that you wanted to complete your set in a year my guess is that the answer you’d get would be somewhere along the line of “well, it could be done but you’d have to cut some corners.” But I’m willing to bet that there a number of less ethical dealers who figure “hey, the guy is going to spend his money with someone so it might as well be me.” And our new collector would probably then be off to the races. (more…)

By Jeff Starck for COIN WORLD

Trying to explain what sight-seen and sight-unseen bidding are is at once easy and confusing.

The market for sight-unseen coins is predominantly for “generic” gold coins, like this 1926 Saint-Gaudens gold $20 double eagle coin and other coins with large populations, several experts told Coin World.

There is little market for sight-unseen trading of certain collector coins, like the 1916-D Winged Liberty Head dime, one expert said.

“Sight-seen” and “sight-unseen” bidding are terms describing ways that dealers can buy and sell coins through dealer-to-dealer networks. But, it turns out, it’s much more complicated than that.

At the basic level, someone buying a coin “sight seen” has the option, once they’ve seen the coin, to buy it at a price already established between buyer and seller for a coin from a specific grading service and in a specific grade, or they can reject the purchase.

Buyers engaging in “sight-unseen” purchases may submit their bid for coins they wish to purchase, again for pieces certified by a third-party grading service, but without seeing the coins before agreeing to the deal.

The ability to pick-and-choose coins under the sight-seen method generally means those coins receive higher prices.

Technology changes market

As technology has evolved, the means and methods by which dealers trade coins has changed. In the 1960s, dealers used teletypewriter systems that transmitted their bid and sell messages to other dealers on the network.

Read Full CoinWorld Article Here

As a leader in the area of rare United States gold, I get to handle some pretty interesting coins on a regular basis. But every now and then there is a piece that comes into my inventory that is so truly exceptional that it gives me pause and makes consider keeping it instead of selling it. The most recent of these was an 1841-D quarter eagle graded MS63 by PCGS that is not only the finest known example of the date but one of the most aesthetically attractive Dahlonega gold coins of any date or denomination that I have seen.

I rank the 1841-D as the fifth rarest of the twenty quarter eagles produced at this mint. There were a total of 4,164 struck of which an estimated 75-100 exist. When available, the typical 1841-D grades VF to EF and is characterized by poor eye appeal and extensively abraded surfaces. There are probably fewer than fifteen properly graded AU’s known as well as four in Uncirculated.

The four Uncirculated examples are as follows:

1. Kansas Collection, ex: Doug Winter, Wexford Collection, Doug Winter, Heritage 1/04: 1017 ($40,250), Green Pond Collection, Doug Winter, Bowers and Merena 11/98: 2076 ($46,000; as PCGS MS62), Heritage 2/90: 1264 ($15,000), Vintage Auctions 8/89: 286 (unsold), David Akers’ session of Auction ’89: 859 ($22,000). Graded MS63 by PCGS.
2. Private collection, ex: Heritage 4/06: 1496 ($46,000), Duke’s Creek Collection (as PCGS MS62), Hancock and Harwell, William Miller collection, Heritage 1993 ANA: 5508 ($25,300). Graded MS63 by NGC.
3. Georgia Collection, ex: Larry Jackson, David Akers 5/98: 1735 ($35,200), John Pittman collection, Stack’s 10/60: 3192 ($270), Milton Holmes collection. Graded MS61 by NGC.
4. Kansas Collection (duplicate), ex: Doug Winter 4/00, Mark Hurst collection, Heritage 1999 FUN: 7627 ($21,850; as PCGS AU58), North Georgia Collection, Stack’s 10/94: 867 ($22,000), James Stack Collection. Graded MS60 by NGC.

As you can tell from this list, I have had the good fortune to handle two of the four Uncirculated 1841-D quarter eagles and I have handled the finest known on three different occasions. (more…)