The 63 Days Of Coins Of The Old West (Carson City & San Francisco)!!

1881-CC

Sorry, got a bit distracted and lost track of time. Here's my 1878-CC Morgan dollar:

Last night 50 or so low grade gold fractionals closed on the bay. Picked up a couple rare half dollars. Lots of bidding, most closing under $100.

It's a "Pedram Collection" sticker. Pedram Ommati made up a bunch of stickers and stuck them on his slabs as being part of the "Pedram Collection." Some of the NGC holders, in fact, feature "Pedram Collection" pedigrees. In fairness, many of the coins were indeed quite high quality. He did have some nice NGC registry sets in Early Dollars -- see, for example, the 1800 @ Heritage Lot #4020 @ Long Beach #1224 (Sept. 17-20 2015).

This is an accelerating trend now that PCGS and NGC will put "custom" pedigrees on holders for a per-coin fee (or free at PCGS if you have a completed qualifying Top 5 Registry Set!) While everyone has a right to name collections after themselves, I think it dilutes the legacy of some of the more valuable and well-known pedigrees that already existed prior to this service, and could potentially fool newer collectors into thinking that a coin with such a "bought pedigree" was somehow more valuable than a non-pedigreed example. The word "Collection" is usually, but not always, a good sign that the pedigree is owner-purchased.

1882-CC GSA dollar:





These, along with 1883 and 1884, were the cheapest of the GSA dollars, at $30 each. The first offering did not sell out, so the GSA had at least one additional offering, and I got additional copies of the 1882, 1883, and 1884 dollars.