Jeff Garrett: Coin Collecting By Die Variety

NGC - Over the last several months, a client of mine has taken a deep dive into collecting Morgan silver dollars. This client is quite studious and has spent considerable time learning the series. Every once in a while, he will ask a question about collecting Morgan dollars that may seem obvious to seasoned collectors, but clearly is not to someone new to the hobby.


The 8 tail feather Morgan is a popular variety in the Morgan dollar series.

His most recent inquiry was about the subject of Morgan dollar varieties. The question is a very good one — What are varieties and which coins are part of a complete Morgan dollar set? This same question could be asked for about every series, and the answer is actually quite complex.

According to the NGC Glossary: A variety is a coin that differs from its basic design type in some distinctive way and is thus differentiated by collectors. While this is a good definition of the term, it does not necessarily give an indication about how to collect them.

Read the Entire Article