Over the past year I fell head over heels for collecting Morgan Dollars. The coins are beautiful in design and at worst, are 90% silver so you can always justify buying as an investment in precious metals.

At first I went on Ebay and just bought coins like crazy, paying no attention to quality or certification. This is not a good way to collect Morgans. I felt that just possesing coins was great. It kinda is, but not highly valuable.

If you want to be a serious collector with a collection that results in a lot of value, make a collecting strategy. Buy a book on Morgan Dollars and learn which dates are most collectible. I started out buying a lot of low quality coins at low prices for every year the Morgan was minted. Now I am going back and filling in different mints, and replacing coins with Certified MS64 Morgans. In some dates and mints this is not all that expensive. For some dates and mints I will have to settle for less that MS64, but the coin will be certified.

Most important, learn what coin grading is all about and who are the most respected commercial coin grading companies. The single most important aspect of coin collecting is the quality of the coin from a numasmatic perspective. Mint state coins are the ticket to a valuable collection. Cerculated coins drastically reduce the coin’s value, although, it will still be 90% silver.

The best move I made was developing a relationship with a local highly respected coin dealer. I got coaching, scolding, fair deals, and a wealth of information on how to collect. And, I unloaded a lot of coins that had no numasmatic value. He actually paid for the silver and threw them in a bucket filled with other circulated silver coins!

There are many great coins to be had on Ebay at great values. Be patient. Look up values in your book. Be very careful about buying uncertified coins. Be careful about buying certified coins from grading companies that are not highly recognized in the coin community. I buy only coins certified by NGC, ANACS, and PCGS. I am not trashing anyone else, but these are the guys everyone respects without question. Be careful. Just because the coin is in a graded slab, it may not be recognized at that grade unless the grading company has high credentials.

Enjoy collecting and by being patient and smart you can build a valuable collection over the years. Always keep in mind, coins certified by quality beat quantiy every time.