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 Replies: 59 / Views: 4,882 |
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Registered Mail is probably your best bet. Sending that kind of weight Overnight is going to cost you an arm and a leg.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7390 Posts |
Actually nix that it's too valuable for his bulk sub. You can print an anacs form and follow the directions. You should be all in at about $50-60. Unless your stuck on pcgs or ngc? Also, since your learning about Morgans don't know if you've seen this. It's a great read http://www.pcgs.com/books/silver-do...r13-001.aspx |
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New Member
 United States
36 Posts |
I will send it to anacs if I don't see a table at the show where they grade. I like the idea of a number grade for details so I can come out with a reference for what details I see on it. That article is the most in-depth and interesting one I have seen in a long time about any topic. I am only on page 3, and that took me a while. I had to read and re-read a lot of paragraphs to take in the desity of info. I will finish it tomorrow I'm hooked but I need to take my time to acually understand all the subtext. A lot of things about economics dawned on me finally reading about the shady dealings deciding what sort of standard to use for coinage. I used wikipedia to learn "what the heck is a pantograph". If there was ever an article right up my alley it's this one. many thanks. by the way reading it has made me decide I will get at least a rolls worth of morgans shipped out to me, can't have just two anymore  |
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New Member
United States
36 Posts |
another real revelation is that so many are probably found not highly circulated because so much was hoarded or in bank vaults. wow
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New Member
United States
36 Posts |
has anyone ever been able to figure what mines the government purchesed refined metal from in particular years and which mints used it?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7390 Posts |
Just wait until you read about the Carson City mint. That should explain.your question. In a nutshell It was created under pressure by mine owners of the Comstock load in Virginia City. Early on in the discovery mine owners would simply pay the mint in san francisco to turn their raw silver into coins. With the shear amount of silver being mined the feds decided to make a new dolar coin, the morgan. Mine owners, for political reasons, hated sending their silver to the Carson City mint and opted for the san francisco mint giving the CC coins we love today all that cache and allure along with their old west connotations. This is a very small nutshell appropriate for 6am. But read up, then read it again. (disclaimer- it has been a while since I last read up on.it)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7390 Posts |
Google the "Bland-Allison act"
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New Member
United States
36 Posts |
They should really have some sort of coinage class in colleges because this is teaching me more about politics around the times of the 1860s and 70s than anything I have ever read in a history book. Honestly and as weird as this sounds for an article on this topic - it reads like a detective novel. I have a new question about shipping Morgan dollars - any thoughts on packing materials? I only have them in the plastic flip containers I recently transferred them to. Then I put them into a few of those things that are like a shoebox but made for 2x2 holders. But being they are such large coins am I in big danger of them clinking together? The guy who is sending them to me is a pretty expert packer, but from your experience would it be worth the effort to send him the harder plastic round capsule holders before they ship out? I hate the idea of them being taken in and out of holders too much. How do you guys ship them when you have to? |
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New Member
United States
36 Posts |
Now I have a question that is very esoteric, but if anybody has heard of it it would be you guys. I was thinking about two things while I read up. Authentication and attribution.
My background is physics and I spent the last ten years identifying very small concentrations of drugs from human specimens, so I think a lot about very small scale differences. Has anyone ever researched the variences in the alloy compositions from specific mints in specific years? Every batch they got of planchets had to come from somewhere and no one is perfect. They are probably like 90.04 or something silver content with certain relative amounts of the remainder metals. If you found a bunch of the same composition which were from the same mint and year it would be strong evidence that you have an authentic specimen. And the real kicker is that if you took into account the die characteristics (something I am starting to read up on) you could pin down timetables of planchet batches, when they changed batches, and in the end on what part of a certain years run the coin was produced. Depending on the depths of the mint's records and their suppliers you could even pin down what mine or combination of mines the silver in it came from.
The future looks bright for what can be learned, but I also fear that as tecnology and things such as 3d printing advances and whatnot develop counterfeiting beyond what the naked eye will see with scourge future collecting. Did that make any sense and has anyone even academically tried that on a specimen coin?
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
I'm going to answer off the cuff, not based on empirical data. The enormous pressure to turn the output of the Comstock Lode - the primary source of all Morgan silver until it played out - into $2 Million per month in Morgans likely led to minor variances in alloy composition, but don't forget that this was Serious Business. They were creating and distributing the nation's money, and precision was an imperative on a level we don't really understand in the day and age of clad coinage and fiat money. They *had* to get it right. I wouldn't expect the alloy consistency to be a usable metric, any more than weight within tolerance would be. And the Mint was - in the late 1800's - capable of shipping a $1000 bag of Morgans correct within 2/100oz. Even with XRF analysis becoming almost ubiquitous, I'm not willing to believe that alloy composition is going to be an effective anti-counterfeiting tool. Then again, there are a few guys out there who have a sufficient sample size all their own to maybe draw conclusions which reach a scientific standard.  |
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New Member
United States
36 Posts |
I'm surprised that back in the day they had such precise tecniques to make the coins! If all that silver came from the comstock lode that makes the history even better. I haven't finished reading that article, like I say I'm really tying to decipher the sentences and their implications one at a time. Mining and its history is another interest I picked up over the last ten years being in california. I even bought a gold claim that I have worked for years (not rich yet but have actually pulled some from the ground).
What got me thinking about testing the alloy composition and other tests is that this is a time where someone could get a pretty good sample size if you were to experiment (through a destructive means) on cull coins people are selling only for their currently low melt value (a sin, but in the name of a greater good). The next lab I get to use I will make sure has an ICP-MS. Even 2/100 of an ounce difference out of 10,000 coins could (possibly) be some sort of hint to a hidden metric buried in the composition. Or not! This is only a thought experiment for me, but give me a few years I seem to be in this for the long haul :)
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New Member
United States
36 Posts |
even with instruments a decade old I had to routinely go down to the .1 picogram level or detection, so in some ways anything is possible (but not necessarily practical)
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New Member
United States
36 Posts |
Thanks for the great conversation guys, it really made me think about things I never considered and a few applied science experiments. I am going out into the middle of nowhere for a while to look for gold, but hopefully when I return I will have a package containing bunch of silver to take pictures of  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
807 Posts |
I would expect the elemental & isotopic composition to vary from batch to batch, and moreso from mint to mint & year to year. If you go back & read the Reports of the Director of the Mint, you will learn about the kinds of limits they kept to in terms of gross characteristics, but things like the degree of refinement of the bullion accepted, the kinds of impurities in it, & the source of the copper used for alloy will nevertheless prove differentiating factors. Neutron activation analysis is the tool I'd like to use.
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Posted 05/04/2015 01:40 am
