Indian head dollar, no date?

Hi all, I am a complete novice to all this but think I have found a facinating new hobby. I have read some here today (handle with cotton gloves! Thanks).

I have inherited some coins! Lots of silver $'s, halves and penny and dimes. I am now hooked. Some of these coins are encased in plastic that says "proof" on the outside. I have orederd a book, United States Coins, from Amazon today, but I am too impatient to wait. Some of the coins are dated late 1800's through 1990's.

One coin that has me intrigued is a silver dollar (i think). It has an indian head on one side, buffalo on the other. No where does it indicate a value. On the front under the indian it says "one troy ounce" And Liberty near the forehead. back only says "999 fine silver" below the buffalo and accross the top again "One troy ounce". Is it a token??? It doesn't look old, but it has my curosity raised because of the no date.

One of the other coins has me intigued too. It is proof coin in plastic. It says on the plastic " Carson Ciity" and "Uncirculated silver dollar". It's dated 1882. It's really a beautiful coin.

While I am not interested in selling any of these, I am curious about them. Some of the coins came in platic cases but most of them are loose. Should I find cases of some sort for these too??

Thanks so much for any info. Now that I am hooked, where would be a good place to start my own collecting?? Buying proof sets??? Any book recomdations??

Carmella

 

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Hi Carmella. Welcome to the hobby and the forum.

You have what is called a "silver round", made to look like an overgrown buffalo nickle (1913-1938). It was privately minted as a bullion coin, and it is worth roughly $7 at today's silver prices.

Now that would be a coin, if it were genuine. Unfortunately there are many fakes out there, and yours is almost certainly one of them.

• The last year Morgan Dollars were minted in Carson City was 1878.
• Only 1,097 Morgan Dollars were minted in 1882 - all of them proofs produced at Philadelphia.

"Proof" is a form of manufacture, which results in a more polished appearing coin. Use the "Search" button at the top of this page, and look for "Carson City" and "Proof", to find prior threads discussing these coins.

Do a search for "storage" and you'll have a lot of reading to do.

Always Buy the book before the coin. Take your time, look at pictures of US and world coins on this and other forums, read , read, read, and find some aspect of the hobby that grabs you by the neck and says "I'm for you!" Hit the search button one more time, this time looking for "books" and you'll see many suggestions that have been made in prior threads.

Above all - ENJOY!

 

[.Now that would be a coin, if it were genuine. Unfortunately there are many fakes out there, and yours is almost certainly one of them.

• The last year Morgan Dollars were minted in Carson City was 1878.
• Only 1,097 Morgan Dollars were minted in 1882 - all of them proofs produced at Philadelphia.

Actually there were 1,133,000 Carson City dollars minted in 1882. It is one of the common date Carson City morgans if you wanna call a Carson City common.

GSA morgans go from $200-$350 uncertified for 1882.

The last year for CC Morgans is 1893. Unless you count the 1900 O/CC.

 

Thank you all for your help. I've spent wayyyy too much time reading here and looking at different coin pictures. Indeed I even found one of the Indian Head token.

As for the Morgan (I wasn't even sure thats what it was called , I'm so glad I named it right), it looks to be the real McCoy. Cool. I found several using the search engine here. I will be sure to take good care of it now.

I also have to thank you all for the infomation posted here. My first impulse was to clean some of the grungiest coins..... But I read that I should NEVER do such a thing!!! So I am now the proud owner of a bag of very dirty coins .

One more question and I will go back to reading........what kind of magnifyer should I purchase to look for dates and mint marks?? I swear I am about to go blind with a standard office one I have. There are about 200 pennies and dimes that I just about gave up on. Most of that have dates that can be read, but mint marks are a real challange.

Thanks again everyone, I am having a blast with this. Never realized how much fun this could be!!!

Carmella (who will forever be checking her change from now on)

 

I was looking at the Trade Dollar page in the Red Book.

I'm slinking back to the darkside in disgrace.