I love the stories I hear from clients who “just got lucky,” and stumbled upon rare coins.   A recent example is the story of a Michigan State University student from Grand Rapids who purchased about 25 silver dollars from a neighbor’s garage sale a few years ago. He paid somewhere between $250-$350 for the group. As the story goes, he held the coins for a few years and finally decided it was time to find out what they were really worth.  

The MSU junior contacted me at Mullen Coins to ask if I could take a look. He also said he had one Morgan Dollar that, according to his research, was potentially quite valuable and he wanted me to help send it to PCGS (Profession Coin Grading Service) for grading and authentication.   While nearly everyone hopes that one of their treasures turns out to be a rare and valuable item, most often the coin turns out to be fairly common.   In this case, the young man was right!   He had a genuine 1893-S Morgan Dollar… the rarest circulation strike of the entire Morgan series and a highly collectible coin.

Off that coin went to PCGS for grading and the results proved the coin to be authentic and graded VG10 and a retail value of well over $2,000.   Even a few of the other coins turned out to be rare dates including two 1928 Peace Dollars.   When all was tallied, his $250 investment at a Grand Rapids garage sale turned out to be worth well over $4,000.   It may not be enough to pay this year’s tuition but it will cover a pretty good social life for his last two years of college.

What treasure do you have?