Carson City Dollar

Taking a break from doing this year's taxes. Looks like I'm going to have to call up one of my mutual fund companies, as it looks like they don't have my 1099's available for some reason. I never did get anything mailed, and I don't see it available online despite them having them available from previous years. Strange.

Anyway, for Christmas, JC had one of my coins professionally graded. I bought it as a teenager many years ago when I was pretty big into collecting coins, and it's been my favorite coin ever since. It is an 1891 Morgan Dollar minted in Carson City in uncirculated condition . You can see the CC mint mark below the eagle on the reverse of the coin (probably need to click on the images to see them in full size in order to read the letters).

Another thing to note is that this coin is what is called the "Spitting Eagle" variety. There was something a bit off with the die that produced it, which led to a little bit of extra metal being added making it look as if the eagle is spitting. It's a common variety for this year, so while cool looking, it doesn't add any premium to the coin's value.

I remember buying it for about $120 as a mint state coin. Now that it's been graded by the Professional Coin Grading Service, I am proud to say that it's an above average quality coin. It came in at MS-63 (uncirculated coins grade from 60 to 70). From what I understand, there is only one MS-67 ever graded by PCGS (one of many coin grading outfits), but there are quite a few that are MS-60 through MS-65.

The values of this particular coin moves up quickly with each grade level increase. Here are the latest estimates from the PCGS guide.

MS-62 $490
MS-63 $700
MS-64 $1,200
MS-65 $4,000
MS-66 $14,500

Too bad the grader didn't give me a 64 rating... now that would have been sweet.

Here are some pics I took of the coin. It really is a pretty coin. The more I look at it, the more I want to get back into collecting again.