1921 Morgan Grade 0

[Tblais1]

I recently Inherited a few coins, and have no experience with coins. I received 3 $20 gold pieces; an 1877-s in ok condition, 1895-s that looks nice and a 1905 (no mint mark) that also looks nice, I plan on sending these in for grading but have no Idea what they will come back at. I also received a 1921 Morgan (no mint mark) that I can't figure out what it is for the life of me. After hours of online research I am still lost.. is it a cameo, proof of some kind or nothing at all? It has a cool blue tone to it which I believe increases it's value, however I am a total newbie and just don't know. If anyone could help me out with possible grading or a suggestion as to how to submit it I would greatly appreciate it.

[Coinbuf]

Welcome to the forum, first the 1921 Morgan is a very common date coin with a mintage of over 44 million and yours has seen some time in circulation (fancy way of saying its been used to buy things) and would not be worth the cost of having it graded, its value is the silver content.  Of the gold coins the 1905 is the most valuable with a mintage of just 59 thousand vs 1.7 million for the 1877-S and 1.1 million for the 1895-S.  All three are worth having graded to insure that all three are indeed authentic, you would be surprised at the number of fake gold coins there are out there and how many are found in inherited collections.

[Tblais1]

1 minute ago, Coinbuf said:

Welcome to the forum, first the 1921 Morgan is a very common date coin with a mintage of over 44 million and yours has seen some time in circulation (fancy way of saying its been used to buy things) and would not be worth the cost of having it graded, its value is the silver content.  Of the gold coins the 1905 is the most valuable with a mintage of just 59 thousand vs 1.7 million for the 1877-S and 1.1 million for the 1895-S.  All three are worth having graded to insure that all three are indeed authentic, you would be surprised at the number of fake gold coins there are out there and how many are found in inherited collections.

Thank you very much, I saw a pic of a cameo chapman and thought I hit the lotto but  was very skeptical.. Thank you again for the information

[MarkFeld]

5 hours ago, Coinbuf said:

Welcome to the forum, first the 1921 Morgan is a very common date coin with a mintage of over 44 million and yours has seen some time in circulation (fancy way of saying its been used to buy things) and would not be worth the cost of having it graded, its value is the silver content.  Of the gold coins the 1905 is the most valuable with a mintage of just 59 thousand vs 1.7 million for the 1877-S and 1.1 million for the 1895-S.  All three are worth having graded to insure that all three are indeed authentic, you would be surprised at the number of fake gold coins there are out there and how many are found in inherited collections.

I don’t necessarily agree that the $20’s are worth getting graded. There are plenty of buyers who can easily determine whether they’re genuine and who are willing to buy them, as is. If they were in better condition and more valuable relative to their gold content, I might feel differently.

[RWB]

The 1921 Morgan resembles a counterfeit.

Take the coins to a legitimate, experienced coin dealer as get his/her opinion before spending money on authentication. Your 1877 DE is barely VF, the other two 1895-S and 1904 (not 1905) are EF to AU - very common grades....Follow Mark's suggestions.

[Tblais1]

Thanks for the advice, like I mentioned I have little to no experience (even got the date wrong) There are a couple dealers around Denver that have excellent reviews, I will take them to a couple shops to get their opinion. Here are a few close-ups .. the 1895 and 1905 seem to have a nice shine to them and are not worn too bad compared to the 1877.

 

I am not sure if this helps or not but I will take them tomorrow to see what they think

[bsshog40]

If I knew nothing about coins and someone starts mentioning possible counterfeits, the first thing I would do is get a magnet and run it over the coins. If nothing sticks, then have them looked at by someone you trust or possibly better pictures here also. 

[NevadaS&G]

Im sending in 3-4 1921's this month in my NGC Submission. I look at the amount of bagmarks and cheeks with hairlines, I believe i have a chart somewhere. If they look like they will grade a minimum of MS-63 

i send them in. These 3 are getting ready for packaging to Florida in a day or so.

Edited December 24, 2020 by NevadaS&G

[Tblais1]

I Just ran a strong magnet over all of them, none stuck.. good start

[NevadaS&G]

Get out your scale next....

[MarkFeld]

7 minutes ago, Tblais1 said:

I Just ran a strong magnet over all of them, none stuck.. good start

While I can’t guarantee it, the $20’s look genuine. But they are probably only worth their melt value or slightly more.
And I agree with RWB about the 1921 Morgan looking suspicious. It has the coloring (resulting from artificial aging) seen on many counterfeits. 

[Tblais1]

I received 28 morgans, weighed them all 27g's ea. 

gold $20's 33g's ea.

[MarkFeld]

5 minutes ago, NevadaS&G said:

Get out your scale next....

Many counterfeits are of the correct weight and are even made out of gold. A decent dealer will be able to look at and authenticate the coins in hand in a matter of seconds. 

[Tblais1]

It was the one morgan that stuck out to me, The rest looked like they were pretty clean but were silver like the rest I have found online.. thought it might be something special. I will take your advice and take them to a dealer and verify them. Thank you very much for your time and information

[Coinbuf]

1 hour ago, MarkFeld said:

I don’t necessarily agree that the $20’s are worth getting graded. There are plenty of buyers who can easily determine whether they’re genuine and who are willing to buy them, as is. If they were in better condition and more valuable relative to their gold content, I might feel differently.

I would agree that there are plenty of dealers that can easily determine the authenticity.  There are also dealers that may know these are real and may may attempt to buy them for far less than market value by saying they are not.  As this fellow is new and has no established relationship to a dealer that type of scenario is one of the possible outcomes, by having them graded and authenticated that possibility is removed.  It also opens the door to other sales venues like Great Collections, or selling to another collector directly using the BST here as opposed to Ebay or selling to a local dealer.  So yes I agree that it is not required but doing so will reduce the risk of being taken by the unscrupulous types and adds some liquidity to the sale side. 

[James_OldeTowne]

The 1921 Morgan looks a little fishy to me.  Overall, none of the coins seems high grade enough to warrant certification.