Are Common Date "Bu" Morgans Ever A Good Investment?

Right now the most common Morgans can be in the $50 to $65 range if they are MS-63 and IF and I do mean IF they aren't the same old dipped out lifeless white coins I see all the time on the coin show circuit. These common dates don't have a good investment track record. So when you are buying these you looking to build a set of Morgans with them. Which means each coin needs to be a stand alone coin. The number one thing I tell people on Morgans is DO NOT BUY A CLEANED MORGAN. There's too many of them out there and they are a problem. Your job is to make sure they remain a problem for the other guy. Now most dealers will still buy common date Morgans as just bulk BU. But if you've got a nice MS-63 that has a nice tone to it such as cherry or violet well then you've got something that dealer can sell by date and you will do better at his table. Places I would avoid buying common BU Morgan dollars from would be any large volume mail order house that lists all of their MS Morgans as BU. Professional Dealers will list a grade. MS-62, MS-63, MS-64, MS-65. Cause there can be a big difference in eye appeal. Even common Morgan's the difference in one of those grades is any easy $5 if not $10. Know what you are buying and demand professionalism.

Morgans, to some (and I include me in the "some") have their own attraction - not as an investment necessarily, but as something to muse and study. The world of the VAM is a world unto itself (as SuperDave can attest I'm sure). For those of us whose brains are wired for minutia, there is nothing more satisfying than grinding through a stack of BU Morgans while looking for that "Top 100", "Hot 50", or "Hit List 40" beauty. Who knows, we might even find a new die combo (or VAM) however unlikely. Bottom line, I wouldn't dis the common ole BU Morgan - some of us might resent it!

Yes, BUT, only in higher grades, i.e. MS66-68. Buying in circulated through MS64 will always be tied to Spot Price.

I have to admit that there's something about a BU Morgan that just really floats my boat. I now have a couple of certified Morgans with CC mint marks that will likely be decent investments, and I also have a handful of raw PL or DMPL examples that also might end up being good investments some day. But still, the thought of having an entire bag full of crisp white Morgans that I could just run my fingers through and listen to them *clink*...

Well, get an entire bag full of crisp white Morgans that you can run your fingers trough if you want that. You asked if they were a good investment. They are, in MS66 or higher.

Someone mentioned something about when Morgans were $7, and I can remember recent buying opportunities at $10. Why oh why didn't I buy more?

It's because when I was a kid you could get them for $1. Nobody wanted them, but banks always had them around. They were heavy, clumsy and kind of dirty, and they were more money than a kid needed. Paper money was so much simpler, and because it came in higher denominations it meant being rich.

I can remember the last time you could trade silver certificates for silver coin, sometime in the mid 60's. Did I redeem all the silver certificates I could find? No...I kept them as souvenirs...

That in retrospect was pretty dumb, but it made sense at the time. The common old coins were going away, being replaced with modern money. Only much later did I realize that "full faith and credit" erodes faster than the weight of a circulating silver coin...

I went to thrift shop last weekend and bought a common morgan not in BU for $28.00. I am trying to feel a Morgan Date Album. I would love to have all BU coins, but for now I am just trying to fill holes. Something about opening up a dancso and seeing missing holes gets to me. As long as I can fill the hole I'm happy. I can always go back over time and upgrade them to BU. I have a son who is 2 and half. If I can get him into the whole hobby then maybe we can start a better set together, and teach him the ways of negotation and bartering. :)