A Couple Of Questions On Morgans $

Well that is too much I'm afraid to say, the PCGS price guide is usually higher by around 20-40% more than it should be.

When I just checked the price for a MS66 is $425 to $550, and even that is too much to pay IMO. For $1100 you might be able to find a MS67 even. I see on ebay currently PCGS MS66 Common Morgans for under $400. I'd look to a CAC graded slab or a PCGS with a CAC sticker on it, especially since you are new to this. There are MS66 graded coins out there on the low end or over graded that will never sell to someone knowledgeable.

These MS66 while nice, are not rare, there are over 100,000 of them in PCGS holders. Check with some of the top silver dollar dealers that handle 100K coins per year or more. Gus Tiso, he has quite a few MS-67 graded from $850 to $1900

Heritage, Stack's/Bowers, even Great Collections online auctions are a good place to look. Use ebay advanced search to find SOLD MS-66 & better dollars to get a better idea of real world pricing, also Heritage and Stacks auction results from recent sales. coinprices.org is another good resource on pricing.

Take your time, don't jump on the first coin you find, like I said there are literally 100,000+ PCGS MS66 or better Morgan dollars out there.

Thank you all for your super interesting takes on this! Much appreciated the insights!



Easier said than done?
You are very right of course! I wish I didn't have the feeling of "this checks (almost) all my boxes when is it ever gonna happen again.." Newbie's curse?

By the way, this is the coin I am (was? maybe still am ) thinking of grabbing. It was an S like John1 called it. I should have specified I want a first-year of mintage since I like "first years" so it's a 1878. It's about $800 but I rounded up because of shipping, fees, etc.


(serial redacted for the time being )

I was looking for CC initially but this caught my eye.

Does the above confirms it's too much or changes your views?

Thanks a lot!

Nice 1878! I like DMPL's and DMPL CC's are just icing on a delicious cake.
I sold my avatar coin (1878-CC PCGS 63 DMPL) last year and came out ahead by $400 over what I paid for it in 2016(?)

CC Morgans will always hold their value. You can pick up an NGC-graded GSA 1883-CC or 1884-CC (maybe in PL even) for $400-$600.

My personal choice for the "I only want one Morgan" folks is always 1880-S or 1881-S. Super affordable, tons of high grade PL/DMPL coins, and almost always beautifully struck.

I paid $300 for this 1880/9-S in a PCGS 63 DMPL holder 9 years ago, which was a substantial premium over book, but I've never complained about it and it still delights me every time I see it in my box.

Just a word of warning the PCGS TrueViews on the 1878 MS66 S are glamor shots and often make the coin look better than in hand. If I am a buyer, I do not like the only photos available to be TrueViews. Sometimes the TrueViews do represent what the coin looks like in hand, but often the TrueViews make the coin appear to be a higher grade.

Hard to say if $800 is a good price without knowing the grade. It would have to be MS66, and at that grade some have recently sold for more, some a lot less. There's two being auctioned on Heritage so you might want to watch those and see.

I've looked at hundreds of Morgan PL's for mark-free busts. As the grade rises, they tend to occur more often, but even at MS63PL I see a few. Overall I see it on about 5% of the PL's. Clean cheek CC's like the 1884-CC above are extremely rare compared to the S mints, and 2-5x higher in price.