Hey, how's it going?
Oh, yeah.
Pretty good?
Good.
What do we got here?
A "Scarface" Morgan silver dollar, top 100 variety.
It's one of the cooler ones.
It's got probably the coolest name, though.
Say hello to my little friend.
Indeed.
[laughs]
JAKE: I have an 1888 O Morgan dollar,
"Scarface" variety that I'm coming into the pawn shop,
looking to sell today.
There's about 19 of these in existence
in a graded mint state.
I'm hoping to sell the coin for $15,000.
RICK: This is interesting.
A Morgan silver dollar, to this day,
it's the most popular collected coin in the United States.
Morgan silver dollars, they came out in 1878.
The reason why it's called a Morgan dollar
is that the engraver was named Morgan.
We basically imported him from England
because we wanted prettier coins because they were kind of blah,
you know?
We've got to be honest about it.
So they called him, and he made this beautiful design.
And it literally came out of the mint like this.
By making silver dollars, the government would actually
make money off the whole thing.
So we wanted tons of silver dollars in circulation.
So the way the coin's made, you have--
it's a steel die on one side, another steel
die on the other side.
And they put a planchette at the center of it.
So the machine starts stamping them out really quickly.
And the minting machine basically broke.
And so Lady Liberty here has a scar down her face.
It was basically a mistake.
Then they replaced the die.
But the thing is, some of these ended
up in the bags of silver dollars that were going to banks.
And some of them actually got out in circulation.
Yeah, So where'd you get it?
I found it in a box.
It's actually been selling in my collection for four years.
I thought it was a scratch for four years,
and did some research, and found out it's actually pretty rare.
RICK: It's pretty rare.
I don't know how many exist.
But I'm sure it's less than 100.
I've never seen one of these things in person before.
I've seen them in books and, like, magazines,
things like that.
Super cool that you just ran across it.
So you probably paid, like, 20 bucks for it.
[laughs]
I'll plead the fifth.
All right.
So here's the deal.
There's a weird market in coins of people who collect errors.
And this is considered an error.
And it's, like, one of the coolest errors.
It's the king of the errors.
RICK: Yeah, they're pretty collectible.
Did you know how much you wanted for it?
15,000.
RICK: $15,000.
I have no idea if that's the right price.
Normally, on, like, a graded coin,
you could just look it up, get a really
quick idea of the market value.
But when you start talking rare, weird stuff,
there's not really a price guide.
I got a friend who specializes just basically in weird coins.
Cool.
So give me a minute.
I'll be right back, OK?
Sure.
Ah, your little friend.
[laughs]
Wow.
That's it.
That's a "Scarface."
[music playing]
This is one of the most significant of the errors
of Morgan dollars.
This one is particularly expensive because it
is just a huge die break.
This die was probably literally almost falling apart
when this coin was struck.
So you can tell from here, the die is broken
almost all the way across.
So there are four acknowledged states of this.
And collectors of these kinds of things, the more destruction,
the better.
If you got this in the first die state, it's $125 coin.
If you get it in the final die state,
it's worth many thousands.
This is a terminal die state, which
means it's the most valuable, so it makes a big difference.
OK.
So going off the fact that it's, like, a terminal die state,
what's it worth?
It's a very, very specialized coin.
The collecting of errors of Morgan dollars
really was only popularized in the last 30 years.
And this one appeals to a very narrow audience.
Because they're so highly individual,
they kind of go all over the place in terms of pricing.
The record for one of these is almost 20,000.
And that was for one that was a little nicer than this,
like a grade higher.
But these things are very difficult to come up
with an exact price because in one auction,
they'll bring a little more, in one auction, a little less.
And the market has mellowed a little bit since then.
So this is worth about $7,000.
Well, thanks, man.
Perfect.
Thank you.
Hey, congratulations.
Thank you.
[exhales]
I mean, I'd give you, like, 4,500 for it.
I'm going to have to pass on that.
I've received offers above that.
And--
Have you?
--I have no desire to sell it.
It's a part of my collection.
So you've received offers of more than $7,000?
Yeah.
[exhales]
I'd go take it then.
OK.
All right.
If the other offer falls through,
and you want 4,500 bucks, come and see me.
Will do.
Appreciate your time.
JAKE: Thank you.
Rick's offer is bargain basement pricing.
4,500 is just too low.
I've had it in my collection for a few years.
I don't need to sell it.