messydesk

At the FUN show this year, there was someone with an X-ray spectrometer doing demonstrations for people using real and fake coins, both raw an in slabs. I think the price on the unit was $17K. Would seem like a must-have for shops that buy scrap. A couple of us rounded up a bunch of the counterfeit micro-O Morgan dollars for testing. Most came up as Sterling silver, but a few were 90%.

Here's a real one I shot at the Central States show during lot viewing.

It should weigh a heck of a lot more than 17.9 grams

This is an old thread but it interests me. Wait 25 or more years until Mercanti has passed from this life. What would a Morgan or Peace silver dollar be worth if the chief engraver had signed a piece of paper encased within a plastic capsule with the silver dollar? I would pay more for it.

What would a 1963 proof set be worth today had Gilroy Roberts signed every tag that's sealed inside?

By the way, I wonder if he will ever clean up that messy desk of his?

So does my wife.

I posted this on VAMWorld and ATS, so I guess I'll repeat it here.

Of the four coins listed above, in Wayne Miller's Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook, only the 1884-CC is not listed as a definite and authorized branch mint proof. The 79-O was authorized to commemorate the reopening of the New Orleans mint. One specimen is in the Smithsonian and provenances for three others are given. The 83-O is mentioned by the New Orleans mint superintendent in the American Journal of Numismatics in 1884. The 1893-CC was struck to commemorate the closing of the CC mint, and Miller says that "considerable documentation exists" for this coin. He continues to describe this coin as not having typical cameo proof appearance, especially on the obverse.

One cannot compare the quality of Philadelphia proofs to branch mint proofs, just as you can't compare business strikes across mints. The branch mints weren't as well versed with the proper manufacture of proof coinage and didn't have access to Philadelphia's medal room.

Someone posted a link on VAMWorld to a 2009 Heritage catalog that has more good information.

Interestingly, the 79-O is the only one with squared-off rims we're used to seeing on Philadelphia proofs. It could be these were struck at Philadelphia on their equipment for New Orleans. If there were matching die markers between the obverses of the 79-P and 79-O proofs, this would prove that Philadelphia struck the 79-O BMPs using the same obverse used for the normal proofs. Other BMPs show evidence of being from known business strike dies that had been re-polished for these special strikings.

... But quite a few look nearly flawless to my eye and have what I'd consider to be a PR70 look.

You're still looking through a plastic holder, which can hide enough imperfections to disqualify a coin from PR70. TPGs will not do crossovers at 70 for this reason.

Enjoy the proof sets for what they are. In addition to costing you a lot of money to have graded that you'll never recover, they'll take up more space once in slabs.

That brockage is just way too cool! Nice purchase, there!

Wow, the end of an era! What's the next challenge going to be?

(Memo to self: Save money for pre-ANA sale.)

Mike,

I'd post 'em if I had 'em, but I'm content shooting yours. I do have this one, though:

And does this one count?

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