ARE GSA MORGAN'S OVER GRADED ?

[Gallagher]

I buy about 90% of my coins from Teletrade and after viewing lot after lot it seems to me that that alot of the GSA Morgan's are over graded.

has anyone else noticed this or is it just me ?

What would you grade the coin in the attachment?

 

gallagher

[gmarguli]

Carson City Morgans are overgraded in general.

 

Looks like an average MS63, so it's likely graded MS65.

[TomB]

The image is blury and I don't know much about Morgans anyway, so I will not venture a guess. I do have two observations, however, on the CC coinage you are writing about. The first is that I have historically thought of TeleTrade as having the worst coins available, they are essentially the Bluesheet of internet auctions, in my opinion only. So, I am not surprised that you might get lower quality coins through them. The second is that of all the mints that made Morgans, I would think that the CC mint would have been in the most primitive setting and with the least technology to preserve the coins. If one keeps that in mind, and views it as being consistent with market grading in other series such as Buffalo nickels, wouldn't the TPGs be more lenient in their grading of CC dollars?

[Elcontador]

Agree with Tom re Telet**d. I went on their site once, and after five minutes, I either had to leave it or find a barf bag. I chose the former. The coins I saw were THAT bad. I've never been back since.

 

While the only Morgan I own now is in my type set, it's an 1884 CC in a PC 6 holder. It's a really nice coin. I bought a number of the GSA $s at the Mint's sale back in t979-80, and over the years, I've seen a number of Morgans.

 

I respectfully disagree with Tom re the other matter. The strike on these coins is normally better than you'll find on Morgans struck in New Orleans. The hair detail is more complete, especially over the ear, and the breast feathers have more detail. A number of the 1883 and 1884 CCs in Unc. are semi-prooflike.

 

The graders cut the Unc. CC Morgans some slack re contact marks. What I've found is that a CC Morgan in 5 often looks like a Seated $ in 3, or sometimes 2. Back then, the only way to get the CC Morgans to circulate was to get them to San Francisco and then send them elsewhere (as the Carson City area was very thinly populated) by ship.

 

The only way to send these Morgans anywhere from Carson City was by stagecoach, and let's face it; Interstate 80 wasn't around. So, these bags of big, heavy coins had a several hundred mile ride over rough roads via stagecoach. I can't think of a better way to put contact marks on Uncirculated coins. The graders agree. The 1885 CCs look especially hideous for the grade.

[Gallagher]

You guessed it Greg,NGC gave the coin an MS65 grade .

I've seen alot of accurately grade CC's in the regular holder's but very few in the GSA's. what are they doing giving the coins an extra point or two because they're in the GSA holder's

gallagher

[TomB]

Actually, you agree with me on both points, Elcontador. I just wasn't clear in what I meant by technology in my first post. I wasn't writing about striking characteristics, I was writing about the technology required to move the dollars in bulk.

[Here]

Well, if it's a 63 then why did NGC put it in a 65 holder? For what it's worth, in the NumisMedia E-News, CC Morgans in Gov't holders and CC Morgans graded by NGC have been listed in the What's Hot column the past few months.

 

 

Jerry

[Morgannut]

Are you saying that Morgans in GSA holders graded by NGC are overgraded compared to those coins in regular NGC/PCGS holders?? From what I've seen the GSA holdered coins are comparable until you get into MS 67. 1885 CC's are notoriously baggy but the cheek still has to be fairly clean for a 65 grade. The grading of the non GSA 1893CC's actually seems very loose--they are marked up and have commonly terrible strikes, whereas the 1878CC's are quite tightly graded from what I see.

 

Actually my concern is lack of consistency between years for GSA CC's and other CC coins that weren't GSA issued. They seem to be ranking these by year.