By JIM JOHNSON
Herald Salinas Bureau Posted: 05/05/2010 03:11:22 AM PDT Updated: 05/05/2010 08:35:51 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge Nader Agha, owner of the Coin & Treasure Shoppe in Monterey, holds an… (VERN FISHER/The Herald)
An ongoing scam thought to be based in the San Francisco Bay Area involving the sale of “counterfeit” antique coins has apparently hit the Peninsula.

Peninsula developer Nader Agha, also a rare-coin dealer and owner of the Coin & Treasure Shoppe on Alvarado Street, last week purchased what he thought were three mint-condition U.S. Morgan Silver Dollar coins for $4,500 from a man who said he’d found them in an abandoned storage locker in Hollister. The silver dollars are generally regarded as one of the most popular precious coins among investors.

According to Agha, the man, who identified himself as Joel Silva and Jose Silva, returned the next day to sell Agha more of the coins. This time, the dealer decided to inspect the merchandise more closely and the man fled with an associate. Agha said he immediately called police.

Monterey police officer Kim Purcell confirmed that Agha had reported an alleged crime, but said the report was forwarded to the U.S. Secret Service because it involved a potential federal crime.

Purcell said local police wouldn’t release any details about the report, including a photo of the suspect, so they wouldn’t potentially compromise the Secret Service’s ongoing investigation. She said the Secret Service confirmed they have been investigating the counterfeit rare coin scam “for some time.”

Purcell said anyone dealing in rare coins should be aware that there may be someone pushing the counterfeit merchandise.

“This definitely sounds like something local coin dealers want to be aware of,” Purcell said.

Secret Service officials did not return phone calls from The Herald.

Agha said he later learned that the scam has netted several other victims, including some from as far away as Modesto. Other reports indicate the scam could have stretched all the way to Oregon. He said the scam is initially very believable and difficult to detect because the counterfeiters apparently splice two genuine antique silver dollars of considerably lesser value together to create the impression that they are more valuable, worth as much as tens of thousands of dollars. The coins, which are contained in protective plastic holders, even appear authentic under high-powered magnifiers, Agha said.

The counterfeiter also had the coins in a box from a well-known grading company, Professional Coin Grading Service of Southern California, according to Agha. A call to the company confirmed that the scam has been underway for some time, Agha said.

“This is very, very bad,” Agha said. “This not only undermines the confidence in PCGS but compromises all buyers and collectors’ confidence in the grading companies.”

According to David Stag, a Santa Rosa-based rare-coin dealer who does business all over the western U.S., the counterfeit scheme is believed to be part of a larger criminal conspiracy that has been in operation for at least seven months. Stag said he had seen 10 of the counterfeit coins himself in the past seven months and had even purchased them before realizing they weren’t authentic. He said he’d heard there had already been at least three arrests in connection with the scam.

According to Agha, his first experience with a counterfeit rare coin scam began late on the morning of April 28 when a man he described as African-American in his late 30s with braided hair entered his store. The man, who introduced himself as “Joel Silva,” told Agha he had discovered “very rare coins” after buying a self-storage locker in Hollister, and offered to sell them.

Agha said he had never seen such beautiful coins in his 40 years in the business, describing them as “phenomenal” and in mint condition, and said he was concerned they were stolen, not counterfeit. He paid the man with a $4,500 check, though he said his suspicions were further aroused when the man asked him to write the check to “Jose Silva.”

The man later cashed the check at Monterey County Bank, Agha said, and his image was captured on their video surveillance system.

The next day, Agha said the man called back and offered to sell more of the coins, and brought one of them by the store later that morning. When Agha pulled out a high-powered scope to inspect the coin more closely, the man immediately said he had to go to his car to get more coins and rare stamps.

Agha and an associate followed him out of the store and saw the man get into a white truck with another man and drive away quickly. Agha said he called police, as well as the grading company, and learned about the apparent extent of the scam. He said the man called back a few hours later and said he was coming by to pick up the coin, but never showed.

Jim Johnson can be reached at 753-6753 or jjohnson@montereyherald.com.

According to U.S. Mint records, there were 12,000 regular circulation Morgan Dollars struck for 1895, and 880 Proof specimens struck. However, only 75 to 80 of the 1895 Morgans have been accounted for, all of them Proofs. Where did 12,000 plus coins go?

 A Mysterious Disappearance?: Numismatic scholars are divided in their opinions as to why the 12,000 business strike specimens of the 1895 Morgan Silver Dollar have vanished into history. Most believe that the coins were never minted in the first place, and that this notation in the Mint accounting ledgers is in error. Some believe that the coins were minted, but melted down for various reasons. I even read one theory that proposes the coins were lost at sea in a shipwreck.

Why is it Called the “Morgan” Dollar when it Depicts Lady Liberty?: Actually, the Morgan Dollar (so-called because it was designed by George T. Morgan) has been called much worse. When it first came out, it was an unpopular coin frequently derided as the “Buzzard Dollar” because of the shape of the eagle’s head and the eagle’s generally scrawny appearance. Another popular term for the Morgan was “Cartwheels.” The proper term for the coin type is the “Liberty Head” dollar.

Millions and Millions of Morgans!: Although the Morgan Dollar wasn’t very popular when it first came out, we know today that it is one of the most popular coin types in the entire U.S. coinage series. Why did this change?

The answer is, millions and millions of Morgans! More than half a billion Morgan Dollars were made between 1878 and 1904, largely because of a law called the Bland-Allison Act, passed by Congress in February of 1878, which mandated that the Treasury must buy 2 to 4 million troy ounces of silver per month!

The “Silver Dick” Lobby: The Treasury was forced to buy this incredible amount of silver, which was flowing out of the Comstock Lode in Nevada, because of a group of silver mine owners who had formed a lobbying group. Led by Congressman Richard “Silver Dick” Bland, the silver lobby was able to pass legislation that made the U.S. Treasury its biggest customer.

Of course, the Treasury had to do something with all this silver, so it had the Mint produce the Liberty Head, aka Morgan, Silver Dollars.

Morgan Dollars are Called the “Buzzard Dollars”: The Morgan Dollar wasn’t very popular. The eagle was considered ugly, and the coin was derisively called a “cartwheel” for its large size and weight, so the Morgan Dollars sat in government vaults for many years, languishing in obscurity. Hundreds of millions of them were melted down again through the years, and many, such as the 12,000 made in 1895, are unaccounted for. But there were still plenty of Morgans to go around, since they only circulated in a few small areas.

The Silver Certificate Secret: Sometime around 1960, certain coin dealers became aware that the Treasury was giving out Morgan Dollars that were more than 80 years old, on a dollar for dollar basis, in exchange for silver certificates. Many of the dealers were just after the silver bullion at lower-than-market cost, but others realized the potential collector value of these 60 to 80 year-old mint state silver dollars. Tens of millions of Morgans were bought at face value until 1964 when the Treasury shut this practice down.

The Public Finally Wakes up to the Beauty of the Morgan Dollar: The Treasury had about 2.9 million Morgans left in 1964, mostly scarce Carson City specimens, which the GSA put up for public sale via mail-bid auctions starting in 1972. By 1980, as the supplies dwindled, the public finally became interested in the beautiful Morgan Dollar. The real feeding frenzy came, however, when an amazing hoard of more than 400,000 Morgans was found in the basement of Nevada miser LaVere Redfield after his death in 1975.

Morgan Mania at Last: The Redfield find got a lot of publicity, and as the U.S. population had become a lot more familiar with the value of its silver coins in the years following the change from the silver coinage to the clad coinage, the Morgan Dollar finally came into its own as a popular collectible series. The publication of the “Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Peace and Morgan Silver Dollars” by Leroy Van Allen and George Mallis, (the VAM book) also spurred significant collector interest in Morgans.

Wham VAM, Thank You Ma’am: The VAM book, so named for the initials of its authors, really boosted the values of Morgan Dollars into the big time. This book lists all of the known die varieties of the Morgan Dollar series, and got collectors to examine their coins more closely for detail. Coins that were previously valued based on a given year’s known mintage of X number of specimens, now had sub-categories of specimens for that year based on die varieties. These sub-categories were naturally more scarce than just any coin from that year, so collectors who might previously have been satisfied with one specimen from each year and mint, now had to have several from each to complete the “set.”

The Holy Grail of the Morgan Dollar Series:

For the rarest Morgan Dollar year/mint variety of them all, the 1895-plain, there are no business strike specimens known to exist. And even though 880 Proof specimens were struck according to Mint records, there are various estimates as to how many remain, ranging from 75 to 80, to upwards of 500! Some of the Proof specimens have been circulated, usually by accident because the Mint didn’t always package them so nicely as they do today, but no business strike example of the 1895 Morgan Silver Dollar has ever been found.

Is it out there? Possibly. If so, if it ever comes to light, it will be one of the most spectacular finds ever in American numismatics!

Come discuss Morgan Dollars with us in the Coin-Collectors Forum.

Special thanks to WackyWolf, a Forum member who offered corrections for this article.

By Susan Headley, About.com Guide

Morgan Dollars have become very popular as an investment vehicle for coin collectors because they cost a reasonable amount of money to buy, have performed very well in the past as an investment, and are beautiful to behold. But like any investment, you must do your homework first if you expect to come out ahead over dealer profits, inflation, rare coin appreciation in general, and knowing which specimens to buy in particular, to ensure that you don’t take a loss inctead.

Morgan Dollars in General

The first thing you need to keep in mind about Morgan Dollars is that specimens that grade below AU-50 are, as a rule, only worth their silver bullion value. Of course, there are a few exceptions, especially for Morgan Dollars minted at Carson City, but most Morgan Dollars on the market today never circulated as regular coinage. The main reason for this is that the Mint produced hundreds of millions more Morgans during the 1800′s than were needed for circulation, so they sat in vaults.

Most Morgan Dollars Never Circulated

More than half a billion Morgan Dollars were minted between 1878 and 1904, and although nearly 3/4 of these were melted back down before being issued, the majority of the Morgans in the marketplace today didn’t even leave the Mint until 1960. You can learn more about the history of the Morgan Dollar, which makes a fascinating story.

The bottom line is that Morgan Dollars in Uncirculated grades are very, very common, so be aware of this when you go to buy Morgans.

Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin

One thing that less-than-honest dealers might attempt to do is try to lead you to believe that just because the Morgan Dollar is 60 to 80 years old, the fact that it’s in Mint State makes it very valuable. The truth is that MS-63 specimens for about half the mint/date combinations sell for $35 to $70 each. Telemarketers are getting $350 to $700 for the same coins! Which is the better investment? Obviously, getting the Red Book and learning the true market values of Morgans is critical.

Invest in Only the Highest Grade Morgan Dollars

Because the Morgan Dollar series exists in generally higher grades than most other series, you should invest in only the highest grade specimens. If you can afford to buy Proof Morgans, you should, because those have performed very well over the last fifteen years. The next best investments are the very high grade, MS-65 or better. They are pricey compared to MS-60 to MS-63, but their incredible rarity in the age of encapsulation make them a good investment.

Remember to Consider the Source

Another very important thing to consider when investing in rare coins, including Morgan Dollars, is to consider the source of the grade. The price difference between MS-63 and MS-65 is significant, and not all dealers and grading services have the same grading standards. In fact, coins which are in slabs from PCGS and NGC are worth more than coins in slabs from certain minor grading services, because PCGS and NGC have consistent, exacting, and largely non-subjective standards for grading.

Store Your Morgan Dollars in a Vault You Control

Finally, once you’ve made the informed decision to invest in a given coin, always take delivery of your coins! Don’t fall for dealer assurances that your coins will be kept safe for you. If the dealer cannot produce the individual coin you’re buying, in a major grading company slab, find another dealer. If you don’t have a proper built-in, fireproof vault to store your investments in, put them in a safety deposit box. Always remember that Morgan Dollars can be your future, so don’t lose them.

Counterfeit coins have been around almost as long as coins themselves. In the early years most coins were only worth as much as the metal they were made of, so fakes were relegated to copies made with inferior metal to the original.

Today coins are worth more than their metal value, so fakes are more lucrative to a counterfeiter.

Counterfeiters have several different ways of making fakes. They can alter the date or mint mark, splice two coins together, or just make the coin themselves. Coin grading companies have stopped a large part of these fakes, but now they are becoming targets themselves.

The reason for writing this article is that lately there has been a rash of counterfeits coming into the market. Most of these counterfeits are coming out of China and through popular online auction sites. I have just returned from the Florida United Numismatics convention in Orlando, one of the largest trade shows in the country, where I was privileged enough to look at some of the new counterfeits coming out of China.

For years the wave of fakes and forgeries has been growing and with it so are the techniques the counterfeiters are using.

At first much of what was being produced were fantasy pieces, coins that were never made with a particular date and mint mark combination. From there counterfeiters went into producing low level fakes. Wrong sized or non-precious metal planchets were dead giveaways for these pieces.

But soon the counterfeiters were using precious metals and spending extra time to make them the correct size and weight. Most of these pieces were easy for experts to detect as the die characteristics were all wrong for an authentic piece. These fooled many novices, but not many experts.

Today two new threats are reaching the market. First are die-struck counterfeits where high quality fakes are being produced from laser cut dies. It takes an expert to discern these fakes. Using knowledge of minute die characteristics is the only way to ferret out these counterfeits.

Secondly counterfeiters are now targeting the grading services themselves.

Recently a batch of counterfeited certified coins hit the market. Two genuine coins were used to make one fake coin, which was then housed in a counterfeit certified holder.

The example I saw was a 1904-S Morgan dollar in a fake PCGS MS64 holder, worth about $5000 if real. The coin was really a 1904-O dollar, a $30 dollar coin, with the back shaved off paired with a 1879-S dollar, a $35 coin, with the front shaved off. The two coins were then glued together and put in a fake PCGS holder. This would fool many collectors and lower level dealers.

If you are buying coins, especially if you are buying them through the internet, be very alert to these threats. Relying on experts in the industry will help you navigate through these potentially costly traps being laid out in this newest wave of counterfeits.

• Allen Rowe is the owner of Northern Nevada Coin in Carson City.

There have always been some mixed emotions when it comes to hoards. It’s probably natural if you are a collector or dealer to have a concern about hoards and the possibility that one might appear and cause a sharp decline in the price of a coin you own.

The classic instance of that happening occurred to collectors owning 1903-O Morgan dollars back in 1962. They thought that they had a $1,500 coin only to see it fall to $15 seemingly overnight as hundreds of thousands of examples were released by the Treasury.

It would be hard to convince them that hoards are good.

On the other side of the matter, there is the very real fact that a hoard can make a certain coin much more available and at a much more reasonable price than was previously the case. This allows many collectors who otherwise would never have owned something to be able to acquire it.

The discovery of roughly 5,400 examples of the 1857-S Coronet Head double eagle on the sunken wreck of the S.S. Central America made not only the date available, but it also made it possible for many to have a chance to have a Mint State Coronet Head double eagle and one that was produced from the early days of the San Francisco Mint.

Without that recovery of 5,400 examples of the 1857-S from their underwater resting place, the possibilities of owning a nice Mint State double eagle from San Francisco in the 1850s would definitely be reduced and that is just one of many examples.

The discovery, promotion and original sale of hoard coins is just one part of the story. That may be the most exciting part of the story, but after the hoard coins are dispersed, how well do they really hold up in terms of price? In fact, there may be no single answer for the simple reason that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of hoard coins.

In many cases, we simply do not have a name and story to attach to the numbers of one issue or another that are known today. That is especially true in the case of gold where hundreds and in a few cases even thousands of Mint State coins returned to the United States from primarily European bank vaults in the past half century.

There was no accounting of the numbers, but when you check the numbers seen at grading services today there is absolutely no doubt that there were substantial numbers.

Even in the cases where we know of specific hoards and likely numbers involved, it is unfair to expect that each and every hoard coin will show similar price movements. After all, they are part of a set and a set of large cents is not likely to move in price at the same rate as double eagles or silver dollars or Jefferson nickels. Consequently, we cannot really expect uniform results. That said, there is still a certain question as to just how well hoard coins have done in recent years, not when compared with each other, but perhaps when compared to other non-hoard dates of the same type.

One of the most famous hoards of all was the Randall Hoard. If you have collected large cents for more than three hours you have probably heard of the Randall Hoard. The story may not be quite in tune with the reality, but the fact remains that sometime in the late 1860s in Georgia there was a discovery of a significant number of large cents allegedly in a keg. The precise dates were debated as were an assortment of issues and the story over the years has evolved slightly but we have very solid evidence that five dates were found in some numbers in Mint State in the Randall Hoard.

The two most heavily represented dates were the 1818 and the 1820, with lesser numbers of the 1816, 1817 and 1819. We can say that with some certainty as the numbers of Mint State examples of the dates found at the grading services showed the 1818 having been seen 296 times at the Professional Coin Grading Service and 288 times at Numismatic Guaranty Corp. in Mint State, while the 1820 was seen 267 times at PCGS and 391 times at NGC. In comparison, the lowest numbers for any of the five dates were posted by the 1819, which appeared 81 times at each service. In the case of a date with a similar mintage from the period the combined total at the grading services was basically under 50.

Clearly the 1818 and 1820 are available in significantly higher numbers. Back in 1998 in MS-60 the 1818 was priced at $250 while the 1820 was $275. Today, in the same grade, the 1818 is $270 and the 1820 is at $300. It would appear that the dates are not doing well except for the fact that the large cents of the period in general have moved very little. The 1816 for example was $420 in 1998 and still is $420. Other dates have increased and usually more than the 1818 and 1820, so while perhaps increasing in price at a below average pace, it would be hard to say that the Randall Hoard dates are very different from other dates of the type.

The 1857-S double eagle found in such large numbers on the S.S. Central America, which sank in 1857 off the North Carolina coast, certainly has to be seen as an extreme test in terms of double eagles. It is not simply a case where the numbers are large, but it is also a case where the S.S. Central America is a relatively recent hoard.

The market has had very little time to really absorb what was over $100 million in sales. It is probably too early to expect the 1857-S, which was basically an available date in circulated grades but not a readily available date in Mint State, to show any signs of price increases. In fact, with very serious doubts that there are even 5,400 collectors of Mint State Coronet Head double eagles to absorb the supply, it would not be at all out of the question to expect the 1857-S to show some potentially serious price declines.

If you check the prices for the 1857-S back in 1998 in MS-60 it listed for $2,600 while an MS-63 was $10,000 with no price listed in higher grades. Today in MS-60 the 1857-S is at $4,500 while an MS-65 is at $7,250. It’s a very interesting situation and a somewhat volatile one as prices are all over the board depending on the price guide. The consensus, however, is that in MS-60 the 1857-S seems to have increased in price perhaps as publicity over the sale of the S.S. Central America coins encouraged some to want to acquire a lower cost example of a famous date.

The price decline in MS-63 may well be a case of this grade was actually hurt because there were suddenly significant numbers of higher grade examples. It is definitely an opposite trend from other Coronet Head double eagle dates. The question for the next few years is likely to be not what happens to the MS-60 or MS-63 prices, but rather how does an MS-65 or MS-66 fare at their current levels.

Another recent double eagle was one involving Saint-Gaudens double eagles. Called the Wells Fargo Hoard, the hoard involved 19,900 examples of the 1908 no motto double eagle. The number was extraordinary and so was the quality of the coins. The breakdown given to Q. David Bowers for his book A Guide Book of Double Eagle Gold Coins by Ron Gillio, who purchased the hoard, had 6,000+ in MS-66 with 1,700+ in MS-67.

These high grades were not just wishful thinking by the person buying the hoard. The coins have gone through the major grading services with stunning results. At PCGS, 793 Wells Fargo hoard coins were called MS-67 compared to 38 that were not from the hoard.

At NGC the number of Wells Fargo MS-67 coins was 941 compared to 94 not from the hoard. There were similar numbers in other high grades. The impact of so many top quality examples of a single date almost had to have an impact.

The MS-65 listing of the no motto 1908 back in 1998 was $1,350 and today in MS-65 the price is $2,350. This is the cheapest of the “No Motto” type.

If MS-65 were the top grade available, then there would be considerable pressure on buyers to find and buy an MS-65. The Wells Fargo Hoard, however, has made MS-65 an average grade for this one date. Combined NGC and PCGS have graded over 6,400 Wells Fargo coins as MS-66 and 1,700 more as MS-67. Under the circumstances, buyers will seek those upper grades and not the MS-65 so there are more than just numbers potentially working against the MS-65 price of the “No Motto” 1908.

A dramatically different situation involving gold coins would be the gold dollars of 1879, 1880 and 1881. The three were low mintage, with the 1879 having a mintage of 3,030 while the 1880 was just 1,636 and the 1881 was 7,707. The three should have all been tough dates, but back at the time they were released someone saved examples. In fact. they saved hundreds of each.

We can see evidence in hundreds of each in Mint State reported by both PCGS and NGC. The hoards of the three were not all that well known, although it is a case where relatively few study and collect gold dollars. While we do not know the details of the hoard, we know that hundreds of each of the three dates are known and the MS-60 price of the three back in 1998 saw the 1879 at $700 while the 1880 and 1881 were each at $400. Today in MS-60 the 1879 is $525, the 1880 is $425 and the 1881 is $410.

There is simply no good way to make sense of that change. Ironically, the 1879 which declined the most in price is the least often seen of the three in highest grades, while the 1881 which actually increased in price in the highest Mint State grades has been graded more often than either of the other dates. There is no good way of explaining the changes, but every so often strange things happen in the market and this would have to qualify as one of those times.

If there is such a thing as a blue chip hoard coin, it is ironically a pattern as the 1856 Flying Eagle cent could not have been a coin even though it circulated simply because the law authorizing the Flying Eagle cent was passed in 1857. Over the years, few coins have been hoarded like the 1856, which seemed to always inspire speculation or at minimum a hoarding instinct.

George Rice of Detroit probably won the prize for the largest hoard of the 1856 with his accumulation numbered 756 pieces while close behind was John Andrew Beck of Pittsburgh, whose total included some from the Rice collection, reached 531.

In the case of the 1856 the numbers are small, but the percentage of the total mintage is large. Produced both in proof and also with a small number of business strikes there is no certainty regarding the 1856 mintage although perhaps 1,500 to 2,500 pieces would be a good range. Back in 1998 the 1856 was at $4,000 in G-4 and today that price is $6,250. In MS-65, the 1998 price was $21,000 and today that price is $65,000. Clearly as hoard coins go, the 1856 Flying Eagle cent continues to defy the other patterns by surging strongly to higher prices and in all grades.

There was a great deal of hoarding during the Civil War and some of that even reached down to copper-nickel cents. As a result, small groups of the copper-nickel cent dates have been reported over the years. The largest was discussed by Q. David Bowers in his book American Coin Treasures and Hoards” The group of probably 1,000 Mint State specimens of the 1862 was offered in a Thomas Elder auction in 1918. The group was significant based on the fact that PCGS has seen about 675 Mint State examples of the 1862 while NGC is at roughly 850. The 1998 prices for the 1862 in Mint State were $80 for an MS-60 and $575 for an MS-65. Today those listings are the same for an MS-60 but $1,050 for an MS-65. For a hoard coin that is not heavily publicized, that’s a strong MS-65 increase, although in reality it reflects a general increase in copper-nickel Indian cents prices in MS-65 as all dates have done basically the same thing in terms of price.

One of the more interesting dates that was heavily hoarded was the 1883 without “CENTS” Liberty Head nickel. No particular hoard can be discussed although groups of 100 or more were known. The 1883 without “CENTS” was simply hoarded by many as a new design. It was an unusual time for hoarding, but people then also hoarded the last couple years of the Shield nickel series. We see the proof in the fact that there are thousands of Mint State 1883 without “CENTS” nickels reported at the grading services and that produced 1998 prices of $32 in MS-60 and $300 in MS-65. Today those prices are $25 in MS-60 and $260 in MS-65, so clearly the extremely large numbers reported by the grading services are keeping the price down.

In his book, Bowers reports on the mysterious appearance on the market of hundreds of Mint State 1877-CC quarters in Mint State. It was an odd situation as traditionally there was very little saving of new coins at Carson City and even if there had been, the 1877-CC quarter with a mintage of nearly 4.2 million would have been an odd choice. That said, the observation of Bowers is supported by grading service totals, which show hundreds of examples of the 1877-CC in Mint State.

Since 1998, the 1877-CC which was at $375 in MS-60 has dropped to $325. Interestingly enough, that is still a premium over the most available Mint State Seated Liberty quarter dates of the type. Realistically the 1877-CC is one of those most available dates, but it happens to have a “CC” mintmark, which may be the only thing stopping it from further declines.

There is no doubt there have been a few Lincoln cents that were hoarded. It was reported that John Zug had some 25,000 examples of the 1909-S VDB, although that hoard was allegedly broken up before 1920. There were at least 10 or more rolls that hit the market in the 1950s, but the demand for the 1909-S VDB is so great that such numbers were drops in the bucket when it came to meeting demand.

Since 1998 the 1909-S VDB has gone from $720 in MS-60 and $1,800 in MS-65 to a current $1,825 in MS-60 and $6,850 in MS-65, proving that with enough demand no hoard can keep prices from rising. The situation with the Philadelphia 1909 VDB is slightly different. Its total numbers hoarded were much, much larger. There is solid demand for the 1909 VDB, also. Its 1998 prices of $9 in MS-60 and $39 in MS-65, respectively, have risen to $25 in MS-60 and $195 in MS-65.

A final Lincoln cent worth noting is the 1931-S. With a mintage below 1 million we know the 1931-S was hoarded. We can dispute the numbers hoarded with a Walter Breen claim that the Maurice Scharlack hoard had 200,000 pieces, which would have been about 25 percent of the entire mintage, but there is no doubt the 1931-S was heavily hoarded in Mint State and upper circulated grades. Since 1998 in Mint State the 1931-S has moved from $53 in MS-60 and $215 in MS-65 to a current $163 in MS-60 and $685 in MS-65.

Probably the most famous hoard coin of all time would be the 1950-D Jefferson nickel. We frankly do not know what percentage of its 2,630,030 mintage was hoarded initially, but somewhere on the order of 50 percent or more would be in the ballpark. A.J. Mitula of Houston, Texas, reportedly had 1 million pieces while another 320,000 were reported in Wisconsin and there were others with larger numbers involved.

The 1950-D soared in price during the 1950s and 1960s probably in part because all were tied up in hoards. Then it simply went into a coma, not moving for decades. In 1998 the 1950-D was $6.50 in MS-60 and $9.50 in MS-65. Today it sits at $18 in MS-60 and $30 in MS-65.

It is certainly a mixed bag when it comes to prices of hoard coins. Greater numbers should hold prices down, but a good story or heavy demand for the whole series can still lift prices higher.

By thenevadamint

Morgan Coins & CC Morgans Investments

Morgan coins, morgan silver dollars, and cc morgans, despite all odds, have become a very popular and very solid investment you may want to consider – appreciating an average of 7 to 15% annual appreciation rate or more!

Morgan Coins – a Quick History

The first cc morgan coin was minted in Carson City in 1878 following the passage of the Bland-Alison Act requiring the US Treasury buy million of ounces of silver per month due to the mass amounts of silver coming out of the great Comstock Lode. Of course the Treasure had to so something with all this silver so it went on to strike over a half billion morgan coins, cc morgans, liberty heads and morgan silver dollars between 1878 and 1904 – with a last run in 1921.

Making $$$ with Morgan Coins & CC Morgans

When the cc morgan silver dollar first came out it was nick-named the “Buzzard Dollar” because the eagle looked grainy and it wasn’t very popular. So over the years millions upon millions of cc morgans were melted down – leaving limited quanities – and making for the perfect coin investment opportunity.

One coin analyst predicts the cc morgan silver dollars poised to increase the most in value in the next few years are the 1895 cc morgan, 1892-cc morgan, 1894 morgan coin, 1878-CC, and the 1883-CC. And if history is any indication, you can expect these rare cc morgan coins (especially the very popular carson city coins) to appreciate an average of 7 to 15% per year or more!

These five morgan coins have demonstrated over the years the strongest gains over a long period of time. And it is for this reason that you can expect these same coins to show a similar increase in value in the future IF you invest in MS-65 uncirculated quality or better.

Invest Only in High Grade CC Morgan Coins

Invest only what you can afford, but make it a point to only invest in the highest grade cc coins specimens. If you can afford to buy proof morgans, you should, because those have performed exceptionally well over the last fifteen years. The next best investments are the very high uncirculated MS-65 or better. Of course these high grade morgan dollars are pricey compared to MS-60 to MS-63, but their rarity virtually guarantees to make them a very good, high ROI investment.

Buy CC Morgans from a Reputable Source

Before you rush off to invest your hard-earned money in a MS-65 cc morgan, keep in mind not all dealers use the same grading standards and it is very much a “buy beware” situation. Only purchase cc coins that have been graded by a top-tier grading and that come in a top-tier grading service holder. Avoid all third-tier services like the plague.

• Top Tier – PCGS and NGC
• Second Tier – ANACS and ICG
• Third Tier – All others, including ACG, INB, NTC, PCI, SEGS, SGS, etc.

Bottom line: Morgan coins and cc coins which are in PCGS and NGC slabs or holder are worth much more than coins in slabs from any of the other minor grading services, because PCGS and NGC have consistent, exacting, and largely non-subjective standards for grading.

Buy CC Morgan Coins on eBay

So what are you waiting for? Venture on over to eBay and find yourself a cc morgan silver dollar treasure today because we’re talking money in the bank!

By Tom LaMarre, Coins Magazine

December 22, 2009

The Bland-Allison Act of 1878 gave a big boost to the San Francisco Mint. The law revived the standard silver dollar and required huge annual mintages. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890 and the Pittman Act of 1921 picked up where the Bland-Allison Act left off.

As a result, San Francisco’s silver dollar production topped the Philadelphia Mint’s in some years. Many dates are still expensive today.

The San Francisco Mint turned out#mce_temp_url#, the first year of the Morgan design. An About Uncirculated-50 1878-S is valued at less than $40.

By 1880, 18 million silver dollars were stored in the San Francisco Mint. One proposal called for them to be shipped to the East, at an estimated cost of $20,000 for every 2 million coins.

But the Philadelphia Mint had its own stockpile of dollars, and the Treasury vaults were at the bursting point.

The 1880-S dollar had a mintage of nearly 9 million. A Mint State-60 example is valued at $36, according to Coin Prices.

Another common date is the 1881-S, which is usually found well struck. Coin Prices lists it at less than $20 in About Uncirculated-50.

Heavy demand for silver dollars was reported in December 1891. Most of the Christmas coins were probably spent, but enough of them have survived that an MS-60 1891-S dollar can be purchased for less than $60.

Counterfeit silver dollars were found circulating in San Francisco in 1897. In most circulated grades, a genuine 1897-S dollar is valued at less than $20.

In 1898, Treasury officials made an arrangement with J. & W. Seligman & Co., which controlled the Anglo-California Bank of San Francisco. The bank received consignments of silver from Mexico, Central and South America and British Columbia at the rate of 10 million ounces a year.

The bank agreed to turn the silver over to the San Francisco Mint in exchange for a certificate of deposit. The bullion was then used to strike silver dollars.

Some of those 1898-S dollars may have been among the coins stolen by the San Francisco city treasurer in 1898, causing a scandal.

By the end of the year, the San Francisco Mint had struck more than 4 million silver dollars. High grade survivors are scarce, but you should be able to find a Fine-12 1898-S for around $25.

The San Francisco Mint’s greatest Morgan dollar year came in 1921, when it turned out more than 21 million. They were the first San Francisco dollars since 1904.

“The first of the resumed coinage of silver dollars, dated 1921, were released from the San Francisco Mint on May 9, on instructions from Washington to supply requests for small quantities,” Farran Zerbe wrote from San Francisco in a letter dated May 10, 1921. “Distribution was limited to not more than 100 in one lot.”

“Silver dollars, seldom seen in most parts of the country, continue in common circulation in San Francisco,” Zerbe added. “It is presumed a large release of the new dollars would drive the old ones from circulation.

“The new dollars are particularly to take the place of those melted to assist our allies in the war and therefore restore silver certificates to circulation.”

More than 21 million 1921-S dollars were struck.

An AU-50 example sells for around $20.

By Harry Miller, Numismatic News

December 08, 2009

In the past week we have had the U.S. Mint stop delivery of silver Eagles first and then gold Eagles. This has caused a rise in the premium of coins available for immediate delivery; however, word is deliveries will resume in about two weeks. Many believe this is an attempt to slow the market down by curbing the off take of physical delivery. Another indication of that are the discounts on methods of holding paper forms of bullion such as ETFs.

We again have higher premiums on proof gold Eagles, which are steadily going into many retirement programs and increases in many premiums of earlier U.S. gold type coins.

Morgan and Peace dollars are stable with a few minor negative adjustments in some high end items, but the market tone seems to have changed to a much more positive one. There is heavy demand for circulated common date issues and brisk trading in low to mid-range mint state coins. This is evidenced by the lack of any discounting on bulk deals in the wholesale markets and at shows.

Proof sets and Mint sets are stable with only positive movement over the last two weeks. Pre-1965 sets and many silver quarter sets now have a floor because melt value is near dealer bids.

By By Peter Hegarty Staff Writer

Publication: Contra Costa Times (California)

Date: Thursday, October 15 2009

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The scam seems discovery-proof and puts coin dealers on edge.

Here’s how it works: Take a valuable coin, cut it along the edge so that it’s split front and back, then attach one of the pieces to another cut from a different coin.

The idea is to mix mint and year marks to create coins

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that appear more valuable.

It worked at least once for suspect Roberto Blas Rodriguez, 32, police said, netting him $75,000 from an Alameda coin dealer during a single transaction.

Patrol officers arrested Rodriguez Oct. 7 after he returned to The Silver Baron on Park Street to allegedly sell more of the vintage Morgan silver dollars.

The Hayward resident was booked on suspicion of burglary and violating trademark law. He is currently free on $45,000 bail.

“We are not sure where the coins were doctored,” Alameda police detective Lorenzo Graham said. “It could have been in China. But it also could have been somewhere in the United States.”

The investigation that culminated with the arrest of Rodriguez began last month, when the U.S. Secret Service contacted Alameda police to get background on a residential burglary that took place last year.

Coins stolen during that burglary ended up at a Fremont jewelry store, which offered them for sale online.

The actual owner of the coins, however, discovered the sale while surfing the Internet and notified authorities.

While jewelry store employees did not face charges they thought they had acquired the coins legitimately Fremont investigators arrested two men on suspicion of fencing the items at the business.

One of them was a family member of Rodriguez, Graham said.

Along with seeking background on the burglary, the secret service tipped off Alameda police that someone may be passing altered coins at local businesses, Graham said.

“The coins that I purchased appeared to be very high grade,” said Larry Bovo, owner of the Silver Baron.

The Morgan dollars were encased individually in sealed plastic “capsules” with a notice from Professional Coin Grading Service, an organization that authenticates and grades rare and valuable coins.

Investigators suspect the grading numbers sealed inside the containers were also fake.

Morgan silver dollars were minted from 1878 to 1904, as well as in 1921, and each can now sometimes sell for thousands of dollars.

“They were in capsules that appeared to be genuine and from the P.C.G.S, the top grading service in the country,” Bovo said about the coins he purchased Oct. 1.

Bovo contacted police when he became suspicious of the items, Graham said.

Police arrested Rodriguez after he returned to the store to allegedly sell more coins.

Steve Suzio, an owner of the Oakland Coin & Jewelry Exchange on Broadway, said he knew about the altered coin scam.

“There’s been reports about it,” Suzio said. “It seems that they’re also manufacturing the plastic cases for the coins and then taking them on the open market. It’s something dealers need to be aware of when someone offers to sell them what appear to be valuable coins.”

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When a new silver dollar arrived on the scene in 1878, no one seemed to welcome its return. There simply was not much clamoring among the American public for a heavy, nearly palm-sized dollar coin. But the Morgan Dollar was never a people’s coin.

The impetus for the Morgan Dollar came from America’s richest silver strike, the great Comstock lode in northern Nevada. The vein of silver was so thick and so rich that a million dollars of silver a week was coming from the Comstock mines. There had to be a market for this river of silver or the bustling Nevada economy would collapse. The Federal government was the obvious customer for all this silver and lobbyists successfully shepherded the new silver dollar into existence with the passage of the Bland-Allsion Act in 1878. Passed over the veto of President Rutherford B. Hayes, Bland-Allison required the United States Treasury to purchase between $2 and $4 million worth of silver bullion per month and coin it into silver dollars.

The new silver dollar was designed by George T. Morgan. The 31-year old Morgan was brought from his native England to serve as “Special Engraver” for the director of the Philadelphia Mint, Henry R. Linderman, in 1876. Ordinarily, coin design was left to the Chief Engraver, then William Barber. A sham competition between the two men was staged and, as the protege of the Director of the Mint, Morgan’s design was chosen. On the front of the coin Morgan created a head of Lady Liberty, based on his Philadelphia schoolteacher-model Anna Willess Williams, and graced the back with a rather underfed eagle.

Ironically, Linderman left the Mint later that year to look after his failing health, Barber’s son Charles succeeded him to Chief Engraver and Morgan was demoted to Assistant Engraver. He would remain in that position, his career stalled, for over 40 years. When he finally ascended to Chief Engraver of the United States Mint, George T. Morgan was over 70 years old. The Morgan Dollar was the only American coin he ever designed.

The first Morgan Dollars were struck on March 11, 1878, less than two weeks after the coin was authorized by Congress, at 3:17 in the afternoon on Press #4 in Philadelphia. It is currently is on display at the Hayes Library and Museaum in Fremont, Ohio. It had a metallic content of 90% silver and 10% copper. While most of the Morgan Dollars were minted in Philadelphia, a small mint was established in Carson City, Nevada to also press the coins near the source of the Comstock lode. The mine, however, played out shortly thereafter and the Carson City mint closed forever in 1893. The Morgan Dollars minted in Carson City are rare and highly collectible today.

More than 500 million Morgan Dollars were minted until production stopped in 1904, after the statutary 25-year run for a coin design. The silver dollars were never really popular – most were circulated in the sparsely populated West – and huge stockpiles were on hand. In 1918, more than 270 million Morgan Dollars were melted down to provide war-time silver for Great Britain. In 1921 another 86 million Morgan Dollars were coined but production was halted in 1922 for the commemorative Peace Dollar to mark the end of World War I. The design was so popular it became the regular silver dollar and no more Morgan Dollars were ver minted.

In death, as in life, the Morgan Dollar was ignored by the public. The silver dollar was not a collector favorite, either, as the smaller denominations were easier to afford. Millions more were melted down for their silver content, especially when silver prices rose. Finally, in 1972, the General Services Administration auctioned off a lot of 2.9 million scarce Carson City Morgan Dollars it had squirrelled in its vaults. Suddenly the Morgan Dollar was hot among collectors.

And then LaVere Redfield died. Redfield was a stock and real estate investor who made millions in Reno, Nevada. Redfield distrusted paper money and didn’t have much confidence in banks, either. When possible, he tried to convert his cash into “hard money.” He set his eye on the Morgan Dollar with its 90% silver content. Silver dollars were readily available at banks throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and Redfield bought them whenever he could. As he bought them, he put the silver dollars in bags and stored them in his basement. He was not a coin collector and didn’t take much notice of the bags as he piled them under his house. He would eventually wind up with 400 bags filled with about 1,000 silver dollars each.

Redfield died in 1974 and while doing an appraisal of his estate, the Internal Revenue Service uncovered the stash of silver dollar-stuffed bags. The story goes that Redfield placed a note of the treasure asking the discover not to alert the IRS of the hoard. The total of 411,000 silver dollars – weighing 11 tons – were put for auction and fetched $7.3 million, the largest documented numismatic transaction in history.

Now the Morgan Dollar had genuine star status in the coin world. The dealers who purchased the Redfield hoard gradually dispersed the silver dollars into the collecting community, further stimulating interest in the coin. Today, the Morgan Dollar, ignored in circulation, is one of the most famous and desired American coins in existence.