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 Replies: 13 / Views: 1,628 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11908 Posts |
This is the first coin I ever bought. It is a 1878 Morgan dollar, 7 Tail Feathers, First Reverse. I wanted an uncirculated, first year of issue Morgan. The dealer who passed away a while ago, trotted this out and told me it was an UNC. The picture may not indicate it clearly but there are two deep scratches in the obverse field in front of the chin. There isn't a clear surface in any field in the coin. He told me that Morgans always had bagmarks. By any measure this is an ugly coin. I realized within a few weeks that it wasn't an UNC. It taught me that I need to learn. As much as possible. For a long time I was really mad at the old-timer who sold me this as an UNC in 1988. Over time, I came to realize that he taught me an important lesson. Caveat Emptor is the rule and you ignore this at your own peril. This lesson served me well in different walks of life, and is one of the things you learn and internalize in coin collecting. And this lesson cost me fifty bucks back then. What do you think the grade is?   IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
5684 Posts |
AU details, harshly cleaned. Sounds like if that lesson stuck with you all these years, it was money well spent!
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
11908 Posts |
The following year he sold me the 1916 and 1927-S SLQs, both in AU for less than $5,000. A client bought some higher grade specimens at auction and was upgrading his set. These were his cast offs. He also showed me a complete set of proof stellas he put together for that same client. There were only four small coins in a capital plastics holder the size of an annual proof set, but holding that was way cool.
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3516 Posts |
 with Zurie AU details Harshly Cleaned |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8521 Posts |
Can you post pics of the slq's ?
Oregon coin geek.....*** GO BEAVS ! ! ! ***
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
36880 Posts |
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
AU Details, cleaned and cleaned again.
Wonderful story. This Morgan has probably saved you tons of money since you bought it. Learning makes all the difference in our fields of collecting.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11908 Posts |
Thanks to all for the input. 52, i'll try to remember to take a couple of pics next time I go to the safe deposit box. It isn't ideal for coin photography there but i'll give it a shot.
IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.com |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8521 Posts |
Thanks, we all love looking at 1916 slq's!
Oregon coin geek.....*** GO BEAVS ! ! ! ***
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
18712 Posts |
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Bedrock of the Community
Canada
11922 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1959 Posts |
I agree with cleaned, scrubbed, then cleaned. Oh, then it was polished and cleaned again. It had a lot of misguided love aimed at it, that's for sure!
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
11908 Posts |
Quote:This is the first coin I ever bought. It is a 1878 Morgan dollar, 7 Tail Feathers, First Reverse. This was the information given to me by the dealer and it turns out to be wrong. I wrote it down on an envelope where I keep the coin and holder. Felt like taking a look again at the difference among the three reverses for the 1878 Morgan. The 1878 Morgan had three reverses. The first reverse had 8 tail feathers, which apparently, were not anatomically correct. These dies wore out at some point. They were replaced by the dies of the second reverse which had 7 tail feathers. These dies were deemed unsatisfactory by the Mint because, although the eagle had the correct 7 tail feathers, it suffered from a concave chest. The pictures of this coin do not show the concave chest clearly, but my examination does detect this feature. The other sign of the 2nd reverse or the 7 tail feathers with reverse of 1878, is that the ends of the feathers in the top arrow end at a 90 degree angle. This is clearly visible in the picture of the reverse of this coin. The 2nd reverse dies were replaced when they wore out by the Mint, and their replacements, the third reverse dies, corrected some of these problems. The chest of the eagle was convex or protruding and the top arrow had feathers that ended at an acute angle as would be expected. The third reverse is also known as the reverse of 1879, as this corrected design carried forward in the series. This coin has the 7 tail feathers of the second reverse of 1878. This research made me appreciate the care and detail orientation of the Mint staff in the late 19th century when they were trying to crank out 10 million silver dollars that year and 15 million the following year. IN NECESSARIIS UNITAS - IN DUBIIS LIBERTAS - IN OMNIBUS CARITAS THE MAN IN THE ARENA, Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne Paris on April 23, 1910: " It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." My coin website: https://fairfaxcoins.comEdited by numismatic student
12/03/2016 11:55 pm
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Replies: 13 / Views: 1,628 |
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Posted 12/01/2016 02:25 am
