A Guide to Collecting Morgan Dollars
Some Morgan dollars are worth thousands of dollars, while others are barely worth a day’s pay. Why is there such a huge discrepancy? It all depends on the rarity of the coin. Morgan dollars were only made from the years of 1878 to 1904 and then one more time in 1921. On average, the Morgan has actually increased nearly four times its original value. However, only a few coins had small mintages (nearing 100,000) and so these coins are worth substantially more.
The coin is made of 90% silver and 10% copper, though it contains less than one troy ounce of silver. In order to buy a Morgan you would have to pay slightly above the price of bullion, including fees for premium/commission. As of early March, the price of silver is hovering between $20-$30 PTO.
What are the most expensive Morgan coins? They include years of 1881, 1885, 1889, 1893 and 1895, particularly CC, S and Proof versions. Morgan dollars remain popular among experienced and amateur coin collectors, as they are coins shrouded in mystery and quite the controversial coin, considered how many Congressional acts the coin influenced.
The most valuable dollar of all in the 1895 Morgan dollar, as it can sell for over $120,000! Why is this coin so special? It’s probably because it has a circulation of approximately 12,000 mints. It is extremely rare, and yet of all these coins, only one hundred have been found and accounted for. That means thousands of coins are missing. What happened to them? Some believe these coins were never actually minted and that it was a mere processing error. Other experts speculate that they were minted but were probably melted down off the record. Still others say that these coins were lost at sea somewhere.
Whatever the case, it is a fascinating story and this mystery is one of the reasons Morgans are still so popular today. Just think if you and your buddies found a bag of 1895 Morgans on a beach somewhere. This would clearly be a case of “I called it first!” Of course, you’re far likelier to find Morgans with higher mintages rather than a one-in-a-million miracle such as the 1895 coin, or even a 1794 silver dollar for that matter. This is another reason Morgans are so well liked—they are the easiest “rare coin” to find during your hunting hobby. For more information on these coins, contact a dealer today!
American Silver
When people think about coin collecting their minds are most likely going to jump towards older coins. This isn’t too unreasonable of an assumption to make, given that the majority of cultures in the passed used coins. Because the world wasn’t nearly as unified as it is today, so there were so many more cultures out there which all used their own currency, much more than in comparison to the still impressive number of cultures that are around, not all of which really use coins today though. Especially in America most people forget that coins are still used in currency, in large because paper money has become so popular, and not only that, but even paper money has started to become a little phased out since so many transactions are conducted through the use of invisible credit or checks or the like. Again, this is far from a bad thing as it is very easy to use credit and the like for transactions since you don’t have to worry about things like exact change, something which his very good for larger purchases and the like.
Even though they might not be a common piece of currency today, there are still many US silver coins which are minted today, and are still very much going to be seen as a prized collection for coin collectors. Many people who aren’t coin collectors are going to be misinformed about which coins are actually going to be the most valuable and are thus going to believe that in the coin world it is going to be gold coins and not silver coins which are actually going to be worth the most.
It is true that gold coins are certainly going to be valuable, but more often than not it is actually going to be the silver coins which are more prized by collectors. This is in large because there are going to be so many more silver coins than gold coins. Because gold is seen as being such a valuable precious metal it isn’t as often to be minted into coins, and usually if it is going to be minted it will be done so only on special order coins which are going to be made with much more gold than your average coins. Silver is generally used more in the creation of coins, so because of that silver coins are going to be more valued by coin collectors.
FACTORS THAT WILL MAKE THE PRICE OF GOLD RISE IN THE NEAR FUTURE
The price of gold will rise in the future and this something that amateur and experienced investors should bear in mind. According to investment experts and financial gurus, responsible investors should base their investment portfolio on precious metals and especially on gold. Traditional investment alternatives such as foreign currency units or stock options are too risky and much less profitable to be worthy, at least in the current economic and financial scenario with its constant ups and downs.
Experts also agree on the fact that precious metals and especially gold are highly attractive investment options because the price of gold does not depend so much on the performance of the economic activity and, in fact, it is not very much affected by the turmoil financial scenario.
For many investors, therefore, gold is a profitable and convenient way of protecting their assets and savings. And now, knowing that the positive tendency that the price of gold has experienced over the last twenty years will go on in the coming future, it is even more attractive. In fact, it relieves them from the fear of losing their hard earned money because the monetary value of this precious metal suddenly drops dramatically.
One of the main factors that will lead the price of gold to keep up with its upward tendency is the shaky financial and banking markets. This financial instability leads investors to divert their investment options away from foreign currency units or traditional stock options as they can realize that business organizations are not performing accurately on average and that the local financial markets are experiencing a downfall.
Everything seems to indicate that this dramatic economic situation will not be solved over the next three to five years as the different countries will require many years to recover. In such scenario, gold, that has always been considered an optimum refuge against financial crisis, becomes even more attractive. As a result, the demand for gold increases and this leads the market of precious metals to automatically raise the price of gold.
Other important factor that adds up to the complexity of the world scenario is the possibility of geopolitical conflict as it affects the global economy and makes investing in gold much more attractive. The Middle East has been a conflictive area for many years and things have not improved much lately. Nowadays, there are problems in Egypt, Libya and in other African countries and even the so called civilized European world has had to face the confrontation of its people. This does nothing but increase the feeling of financial instability, which leads people to turn their eyes to gold and, therefore, the price of gold goes up.
