A disappointing purchase made over a year ago that in the end turned out well.

Have you ever purchased a coin that you have come to regret buying? I?m sure that at one time or another we have all purchased coins that afterwards have us scratching our head and wondering what in the world we were thinking. While there is no way short of a buying freeze to prevent the time-to-time aberrant purchase, well-defined collecting goals do help to minimize the chances. It is always in our best interest to buy the right coin the first time around, rather than to sell the wrong coin later at a loss.

With a goal of collecting the entire Silver Britannia series in MS-69, I bought a sheet of 10, 2007 Britannia?s a little more than a year ago on E-Bay for about $27/coin. Since certified coins in this series at MS-69 are scarce, I thought to submit all ten coins with the hope that at least one would grade MS-69. I was disappointed to find that when my coins arrived, none of them were worthy of submission. For whatever reason, the British Royal Mint packages these coins in a way that makes them vulnerable to damage, as all of them had scuff marks on Queen Elizabeth?s cheek. I thought to return the coins, but in the end, I did not want go through the hassle, so I kept them.

Now a year later, thanks to silver being more than $23/oz, I had the opportunity to sell all 10 Britannia?s on E-Bay as a ?Buy it Now? for $35/coin. After two weeks on E-Bay, I sold all 10 coins along with four other coins, and netted almost $3/coin profit on the 2007 Britannia?s. With the gross proceeds of my sales in my PayPal account, you can just imagine how the gears in my head started to turn.

With those proceeds, I purchased thee Morgan Dollars, an MS-62 1880-O, MS-62 1891-O, and a rainbow-toned MS-63 1882-O. The 1880 and 1891 are the best coins I could obtain on a maximum budget of $200/coin, and both cost me significantly less than Fair Market Value. I paid a premium for the 1882 coin, but the reverse has beautiful violet, green, and golden toning; making this coin well worth what I paid, while still costing less than $200.

The 1882-O has spectacular color and the value of the 1880-O and 1891-O dollar?s rise rapidly at MS-63 and higher, meaning I will not be upgrading any of these coins. Normally, I try to cherry pick well struck coins for my collection. However, the 1891-O has the poorest strike of any Morgan Dollar I have owned. In fact, my research shows that 1891 is one of the worst years for well-struck coins at New Orleans. Therefore, I will use this coin to illustrate a point when I eventually write my owner descriptions. This effectively makes all three coins the right coins the first time around.

I hope you all get the coins you want the first time around, so until next time, happy collecting!

Gary