*** Topic Split off of a For Sale topic. A separate topic is more appropriate for discussion than tagging on to an item for sale. ***History behind the GSA sale of CC
Morgan dollars. Note the different categories.
DISCOVERY OF THE GSA HOARD
Until 1964, people in the U.S could redeem silver certificate paper money for silver dollars.
In 1963, the House of Representatives passed a law repealing the Silver Purchase Act And instructing on the retirement of $1 silver certificates. Certificate holders had 10 more months to exchange the paper money for dollar coins, and in March of 1964 the issuance of silver dollars stopped.For the next 4 years, certificates were redeemable for silver granules.
In June, 1968 the redemption period for silver certificates ended altogether.
In 1964, during an inventory audit, treasury staff uncovered an astonishing hoard in their own vaults: A stash of almost 3 million silver dollars, most of them uncirculated and still sealed in mint bags. Most of the coins were dollars minted in the Carson city mint in Nevada, with about 125,000 coins from other mints.In 1970, Congress authorized the General Services Administration (the GSA) to sell the hoard of silver dollars to the public. The proceeds from the sales (in excess of expenses) would go to the national treasury.
SORTING THE GSA HOARD SILVER DOLLARS
A team of GSA workers started sorting the coins into categories in accordance with the coins' condition ratings.With guidance from a group of numismatic experts , the GSA staff divided the silver dollars into 5 main groups:
Uncirculated Carson City silver dollars - over 2,000,000 dollars received this distinction. These were encapsulated in special plastic slabs with "CARSON CITY" and "UNCIRCULATED SILVER DOLLAR" on them, sonically sealed, and packed in black boxes lined with a blue velvet-like material, and included a numbered certificate as well as a personalized message from president Nixon.
Mixed Carson City silver dollars - in this category went almost 700,000 coins from the Carson City mint, considered to be uncirculated, but of inferior quality; these either had worse, unsightly abrasions and bag marks, or oxidation-caused patina (toning), or both. Those toned dollars sometimes grade as high as these dollars get (I've seen one in NGC MS68), and we're simply (and wrongly) considered inferior because of the toning alone. These were placed in the same packaging, but without the word "UNCIRCULATED" on the slab, and simply read "CARSON CITY SILVER DOLLAR". They included an unnumbered certificate.
Uncirculated Non-CC dollars - these were slabbed in the same style holders and labeled "UNITED STATES SILVER DOLLAR". The official number released by the GSA was 28,000 , although no specific number of date/MM distribution was released (or recorded).
Circulated - coins deemed to be circulated were packed in soft plastic sleeves along with a white GSA token. A certificate, bidding form, and the sealed dollar were then placed in a blue envelope marked "United States Silver Dollar" (a packaging similar to that of the "Blue Ike's"). No official number of these was ever released by the GSA, but it is estimated that that fewer than 100,000 were sold.
Rejects - about 300 coins were deemed unsalable. These were rejected and not included in the sales.
CARSON CITY DOLLARS IN THE GSA HOARD
The GSA Hoard contain high percentage of the entire mintage of some Carson City dollars (up to almost 85%!).Below you'll find the total montages of the dates found, and the percentage of the total mintage discovered in the hoard:
- 1878-CC Mintage 2,212,000 | GSA Hoard 60,993 (2.75%)
- 1879-CC Mintage 756,000 | GSA Hoard 4,123 (0.55%)
- 1880-CC Mintage 591,000 | GSA Hoard 131,529 (22.25%)
- 1881-CC Mintage 296,000 | GSA Hoard 147,485 (49.8%)
- 1882-CC Mintage 1,133,000 | GSA Hoard 605,029 (53.4%)
- 1883-CC Mintage 1,204,000 | GSA Hoard 755,518 (62.75%)
- 1884-CC Mintage 1,136,000 | GSA Hoard 962,638 (84.75%)
- 1885-CC Mintage 228,000 | GSA Hoard 148,285 (65%)
- 1889-CC Mintage 350,000 | GSA Hoard 1 (-)
- 1890-CC Mintage 2,309,041 | GSA Hoard 3,949 (0.17%)
- 1891-CC Mintage 1,618,000 | GSA Hoard 5,687 (0.35%)
- 1892-CC Mintage 1,352,000 | GSA Hoard 1 (-)
- 1893-CC Mintage 677,000 | GSA Hoard 1 (-)
THE GSA SALES
The GSA launched a massive publicity and advertising campaign, which included the mailing of hundreds of thousands of enticing brochures (most of which are collectibles today).From October 1972 to June 1974 the US Treasury offered five mail-bid sales of silver dollars, consisting mainly of Carson City silver dollars. Purchases were limited to one date per household.
During the two years, almost 2 million coins were sold, grossing close to $55 million - the largest volume of rare coins ever sold worldwide.The 1878-CC, 1879-CC, 1882-CC, 1890-CC, and 1891-CC were sold out.
The balance of a little over a million coins was sold in 1980 in two separate mail bid sales. The inventory consisted of over 800,000 1883-CC and 1884-CC dollars and about 200,000 mixed date CC dollars, which were not considered BU (see group 2 above).
All seven sales grossed in the neighborhood of $100 million.
The impact of the GSA Hoard sale was huge; not only in monetary value but in how they influenced the numismatic world, and more specifically the Carson City coin market.
If the Treasury had melted down the nearly 2.9 million "CC" silver dollars instead of offering them for sale to the public, the total population of "CC" coins (all denominations) would have decreased by about 72.5%. Many of the dates in the Carson City
Morgan dollar series would be rarer to exorbitantly scarcer. The 1884-CC and 1885-CC come to mind, imagine the total mintage of the 1884-CC dropping to ~15% survivors!
Prices for the CC dollars were understandably affected by the GSA Hoard. Prior to release of these coins, CC dollars were scarce in high grades. As the coins entered the marketplace it became clear that a number of the dates were more common. Prices began to reflect their rarity or lack of it. Dates such as the 1889-CC, 1890-CC, 1891-CC, 1892-CC, and 1893-CC saw price increases due to their scarcity. Issues from 1882-1884 were significantly devalued.
COLLECTING GSA DOLLARS
For many years it was an acceptable practice to break the CC dollars out of the GSA holders. Coin dealers regularly cracked out hundreds of silver dollars out of the GSA holders and sold them "raw" or sent them to be graded, as the GSA slabs didn't command any premium. Both PCGS and NGC allowed collectors to send in GSA dollars in their original holders in order to have the "GSA" designation on their label once they cracked the coins out and encapsulated them in their own slabs.
In the past 15 years, however, as the holders have become "vintage" many collectors prefer to keep their coins in the original GSA holders.
Collectors today are passionate about Carson City
Morgan silver dollars in their original GSA packaging. The fact that hundreds of thousands of these dollars have been removed from the government slabs, and the black boxes and accompanying cards have been discarded, adds to allure of pursuing a collection of GSA Morgans, and makes collecting them even more challenging.
In 2004, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) began grading GSA dollars in their original government slabs.
Almost a decade later, as PCGS has realized the importance of the original packaging to collectors, they too began grading GSA dollars in their holders, BUT decided to do so by encapsulating the whole GSA holder in another oversized PCGS holder. That created 2 problems for GSA collectors:
the coin was now behind TWO layers of plastic, difficult to view properly, and bulky.
Most importantly, these GSA holders could not fit back into the black boxes they came in, and now boxes and COA's had to be kept separately from the coins themselves.
Another problem with PCGS grading of the GSA dollars is, should you choose to crossover NGC or ANACS (or any other
TPG that uses a band or sticker around the GSA holder to grade) graded GSA's to PCGS, PCGS will not remove the sticker/label from the holder, but instead REMOVE THE COIN COMPLETELY from the original holder, and encapsulate them in one of their own normal slabs, with the "GSA" designation on the label.
In addition, NGC grades these series of coins in a more strict fashion, especially in the higher grade levels. Past auction results paint a clear picture when comparing same grade coins from NGC and PCGS, and the total price they realized.
Posted 02/22/2019 4:39 pm
