One of my favorite early Morgan Dollar dates, and certainly still a bit underrated. The large number of sketchily graded “Unc” coins that you typically see have tended to hold down the true value of genuinely Choice BU examples - more on this below, if you care to read about it further. This coin is the real deal, and fairly scarce at CAC. To put it into perspective, PCGS & NGC have certified 6,900+ coins in MS-63; CAC shows a total of 99, just over 1% pass rate (October, 2021). Given that a lot of people would not bother to submit a coin in this grade to CAC, that still says a lot, as there is a solid premium for a CAC sticker.

PCGS 7090.63/29637888

History of the 1879-O Dollar: Large number of “Sliders” exist, as for some reason, the Mint & banks in New Orleans paid out a substantial percentage of this Mintage soon after production, only to have mass quantities come back and straight into storage. The vast majority of these briefly circulated coins were AU-55 to AU-58, and as they were re-bagged tended to stay “white”. Later, these bags wound up in the U. S. Treasury holdings, probably after the First World War as needed backing for Silver Certificates, only to emerge in the Dollar Rush in the late 1950’s-early 1960’s. Due to the need to have available inventory to sell to the large number of new entrants into the coin market thanks to the State Quarter program, many of these sketchy AU/BU coins wound up certified MS-60 to 62, sometimes MS-63.