And the WINNER is?..CT?s Coins!!!!!

I continue to be impressed with the depth of coin collecting knowledge among members of the collectors society. The contest was to identify the mystery coin by type, date, mint mark, variety, and grade, by only looking at a picture of the reverse of the coin (see picture below). A seemingly impossible task?but the members were up to it. Thank you to all who submitted their best guess and to those that thought about it, but could not figure it out. I only gave one clue that the coin was not included in any of my registry sets. I thought it would take several clues before anyone got it right, but CT?s Coins scored a 100% on his first try. So?contest over!

In order to get to the right answer, it was necessary to have some knowledge of Morgan silver dollars and those packaged in the GSA holders. A little research, some grading skill, and maybe some luck come in handy too.

The puzzle could be solved like this: First, it is a Morgan Silver Dollar. A little knowledge or research could determine this. Since the mint mark was a clearly visible CC, the mint was Carson City. This alone eliminated many possible dates, as the Carson City facility minted only 13 dates for the Morgan silver dollar, from 1878 to 1893, not including 1886, 1887, or 1888.

The next important fact which helps to solve for the exact date is the variety of the reverse. The flat chest of the eagle and the parallel arrow tail feathers are the critical information in determining that it is the reverse used in 1878, the first year of the Morgan. However, the reverse of 1878 dies were also used in producing some of the Carson City silver dollars for 1880 as well. So by determining the variety, the possible dates can be narrowed down to two, 1878 and 1880. But which date is right?

The correct date can be determined with some knowledge of the history of the GSA dollars. Most of the GSA dollars were packaged in the hard plastic black holders and sold to the public in the 1970?s and 80?s. How do we know this is a GSA dollar in a hard plastic holder? The giveaway is the existence of the small nubs evident at 10 o?clock, 2 o?clock, and 6 o?clock that were used to secure the coin in the holder. Not every coin has all three nubs, but almost all have at least one that is clearly visible. The Mystery Coin has one very obvious nub at 10 o?clock. Therefore, it is a GSA dollar in a hard pack holder. Why, you ask, does this matter?

It is significant because of this: The coin is obviously toned. When the GSA packaged the coins, it sorted out all toned coins for 1878-CC and packaged them in a different soft clear plastic holder. No toned 1878-CC Morgans went into the hard black plastic holders. This was not the case for the other GSA dates. Therefore, since the date is either 1878 or 1880, and is toned and in a black hard pack GSA holder, the date must be 1880!!

Now for the grade: This was a bit more of a guess. Several members guessed that the coin was MS65 or MS64. I wish. Just looking at the reverse, I would tend to agree with them. However, another interesting thing about the GSA Morgan silver dollars is that the reverse tends to be much nicer than the obverse. For most GSA dollars, the obverse tends to be a little baggy, and a grade or two lower than the reverse. As a result, when NGC gives an overall grade to the coin, they generally grade it at the lower of the obverse or reverse. If the reverse of the Mystery Coin is MS65 or MS64, the obverse must be?MS63!!

The coin graded at MS63* (star was given for superior eye appeal resulting from toning).

Final Answer: Morgan Silver Dollar 1880-CC Reverse of 1878 NGC MS63*

Thank you to all who entered, and congratulations to CT?s Coins!!

Winner

CT?s Coins (100% correct)

1st Place Prize ? Buffalo Nickel 1921 (at least I think it is 1921, as I can hardly read the date, the coin is so worn out)

Honorable Mention (you were soooo close!!!)

MWit

teemer

Walt Ughes

King of Eagles

Erik S. Larsen

Dutch

Michael W. Cooper

P.S. - CT?s Coins, I will contact you separately to arrange the awarding of the first place prize ? a coin you will cherish (until you receive it, then you will probably want sell it immediately on ebay for whatever you can get for it, which won?t be much).