Back in late October I blogged about my trip to the Pittsburgh ANA Convention here. At that point I mentioned a really exciting purchase that I was unable to discuss in detail. Well the cat is finally out of the bag. Art & Coin TV are the proud owners of the 1880-S PCGS MS69 Prooflike Morgan Dollar! This is the single finest Morgan Dollar in existence, bar none. I have been biting my tongue for over a month and now that Barry has made the big announcement, I am finally at liberty to talk. Besides, you probably already know about it from the media coverage in places such as Yahoo Finance and Market Watch.
A few weeks prior to the convention we learned that the coin was going to become available. We were excited about the prospect of Art & Coin TV actually owning this important piece of numismatics. Barry and I discussed the coin at great length. It is very hard to value a coin that is literally unique. What do you compare it to? We put together a bidding strategy and decided to go for it. We wanted this coin.
About a half hour before the auction, I called Barry just to make sure there were no changes in our plans. He didn’t pick up, so I left a nervous voice message letting him know that I was going for it. I stepped into the auction room about 20 minutes prior to our target lot crossing the auction block and took a seat. I waited, not-so-patiently, as many other wonderful yet somewhat less noteworthy coins crossed the auction block. Finally it was the moment of truth. I raised my paddle a few times until the auctioneer exclaimed “sold!”
By now my heart was racing. We bought the coin. I sent Barry an email letting him know what transpired. I quickly received a response telling me “great job.” This was really exciting. I buy thousands of coins a week, but this was something truly extraordinary. I was so excited that I wanted to tell everyone, but for the time being I was sworn to secrecy. (OK, maybe I told a few close friends.)
Owning the highest graded Morgan Dollar is amazingly exciting for us here at Art & Coin Television. It is a real honor to own this 1880-S Morgan Dollar graded Mint State 69 Prooflike by PCGS. Just today Greg, Barry and I were admiring the coin together and discussing how cool it is. I mean think about it- there are millions and millions of Morgan Dollars, but this is the finest quality one there is.
You can contact Jack at jack@artandcointv.com
