Tonight I saw a TV advertisment offering an 1889 Morgan Silver Dollar with “the Rare Carson City Mintmark, the Rarest of Them All!!” The ad called it an uncirculated proofset coin.
It went on to say that recently, an 1889 Morgan Silver dollar sold for “five hundred-something-thousand dollars”. On TV, they were going for $19.95. The one they showed on the ad was stunning in condition.
After a quick search, this cite seems to be associated with the ad I saw as much of the copy is word for word.
I have a mild interest in coins and collecting and was paying some attention to the ad. How can there be a half million dollar difference in apparently the same coin? A search on Ebay indeed shows some that are several thousand dollars and some are $10.
Usually, proof struck coins are the most valuable. Is this an exception?
The coin being advertised, as well as some of the coins being sold on eBay, are modern reproductions. I have highlighted the tipoff words in the advertisement that you linked to:
The original, real deal is worth thousands of dollars. The reproductions are worth … well, at most, $9.95.
Jeez, thats really sneaky. Now that I look, there’s no value stamped on the coin either. They do call it an ‘1889 “CC” Morgan Proof’, implying that its from that year.
Hey you punched the right thing. You punched up the SDMB.
But, to answer you other, legitimate question–"How can there be a half million dollar difference in apparently the same coin? "
Well–maybe not quite that much difference, but I have to face this kind of disparity with the public every day as I buy coins.
An extreme example: In 1896, in New Orleans, they made about 5 million silver dollars. That means that that coin is pretty common. We probably sell rather worn examples(what we call VG or Fine) for $15-20. That same date and mintmark, in the finest known condition(MS-65) is about a $20,000. coin. Very rare.
For whatever reason, people that year just didn’t save that coin in pristine condition. Most of them saw heavy circulation. And, when the mint turned up bags of never-circulated silver dollars in the 1960’s, there were NONE of that date in the hoard. But there WERE bags of unused 1898-1904 New Orleans dollars still uncirculated. The prices of these latter dates plummeted in the 1960’s as the bag-quantities were dispersed to the public.
There’s another one being advertised quite often under the same sneaky sale. Something about a golden eagle coin that escaped being melted down by presidential orders, was in Ft. Knox etc… yadda yadda etc… and you too can own a piece of history! They are on sale now for the one time (one VERY long time) price of $19.95 plus shipping and handling.
Another thing to look out for is that they say “24kt gold-clad proof” for the “gold pieces”. That is, it’s not gold; it’s just plated with a very thin coating of gold. The silver dollar reproductions are silver plated; not solid silver. They’ll say something like “clad in pure silver”.
I’ve a question on this… since they look like official US coinage, how can a “Non US Mint” source be turning these out? Are they legal tender? They look like copies of legal tender to me, what do they “leave off” to make it legal to reproduce?
The key to all of this, of course, is that if it sounds too good to be true…check with the SDMB. If it isn’t minted by the US Mint, it ain’t an American coin, folks, it’s a collectible (and probably not very).
I saw the TV ad for the 1933 Double Eagle ($20) gold piece. When they showed the reverse, they never showed the bottom of the item (I don’t dare call it a coin). They probably have the word “COPY” at the bottom, making it legal.
adirondack_mike’s cite might be the best .gov website I have ever seen. Clear, intuitive and most of all: relevant. A breath of fresh air.
Make sure you read the yellow links at the top: “Hot Items” and “Tips on Identifying…” etc. Good stuff.
My understanding is that only legal tender can be advertised as a “coin”, and I suspect that the ad copy was very careful never to refer to the “proof” as a coin. You will notice that in the ad you linked to that although there are many references to coins on the page – enough to confuse the unwary – the text for the ad for the Morgan replica never uses the word “coin”.
