MONDAY MARCH 19TH – AUSTIN, TX – 2018

Monday March 19th – Austin, TX

Just two weeks after visiting coin Heaven in Tucson after finishing up my day job of selling lights to hotels, I was faced with another afternoon off. As my partner and I are still in the gathering stage of myth busting experiment, it was time to continue our search for undisturbed groups of Rattler Morgan dollars. We have decided that we would like to gather a group of 100 coins to launch us into the next phase. Much to my dismay, the first coin shop I stopped in to visit McBride’s Guns, (a delightful gun and sport shop that has a nice coin store on the side), wasn’t open. I have been to this shop before and will visit again.

So rather than risk a wasted trip – I called the next one – South Austin Coin Exchange and spoke to Bradley the owner there. After first telling me that he didn’t think he had any first generation coins, he put me on hold and asked one of his associates to bring out the boxes of Morgans and to check them for rattlers. I could hear them in the background saying found 1, then 2, 3 and finally 4 – Hooray, I thought that’s a good group. He gave some basic directions and off to the shop I went. Again, since the truest way to go about our scientific experiment is not to cherry pick, but to just purchase the coins and move on. When I arrived we quickly agreed that I would buy them all, so Bradley priced them out onto stickers and wrote up an invoice.

While I was writing the check, he stated that he had a nicer, better date rattler PL coin in his upgrade box and asked if I would like to see it…Yes, I proclaimed – and out came that coin a 1900-S in 64PL which He claimed was a lock upgrade. After speaking a bit further, he said he would sell it to us for $50 over what he paid – I pulled out the check book and wrote up the other amount. Very nice indeed a 5 coin batch and new coin friend to follow up with in the future.

I can’t stress enough how important and fun it is to visit your local coin dealers as often as you can to encourage and support them to be on the look-out for items that you are most interested in. Anyone can scour the internet, but these folks have coins and collectibles brought to them all throughout the year, as well as trading with other dealers. Each visit is like a treasure hunt. I learned that He had actually purchased a group of 30 common date MS 63 $20 gold pieces in rattler holders just a few months ago, had his team crack them all out of the holders and re-submitted them to PCGS – 29 out of the 30 coins upgraded, several by 2 full points with all but one coming back at higher grade – PCGS called one environmentally damaged – we will cover this in a bit more detail later in our experiments, and we will also cover whether or not something like this is worthwhile from an investment standpoint using our new  buying curve method for identifying purchasing sweet spots ahead of time. Thank you Bradley for sharing – I will look forward to our next conversation.

Now it’s time for me to head on down to 6th Street – take in the sights and close another successful chapter in our quest for 100 coins by adding a nice group of 5 from the greatest and self-proclaimed – weirdest – little city in Texas – Austin

After all, when you have an opportunity to enjoy a pint of Pecan Porter along with some mighty fine Sausages at Banger’s – You Do It! Never- Ever – let life pass you by!