A quick guide to buying unopened GSAs

Unopened GSAs offer the gambler that resides in most collectors a fun crapshoot. What are the chances of a hidden gem in the package?

GSAs like this come up on auction websites once in a while and for the most part, they're the common dates (1883, 1884). Those dates were sold in bulk in the last sales of 1980. The bulk sale common GSAs have no distinctive packaging or marks.

However, the better date GSAs (1880, 1881, and 1885) were also sold in bulk, albeit in smaller quantities. These boxes were stamped like this:

The scarce dates (1878, 1879, 1890, and 1891) boxes were also stamped like this.

One thing is certain: the scarce dates were never sold in quantity. All coins of the 1878 were sold in the third sale of 1972 that featured a quantity of about 47,000 mint state coins. Other 1878CC coins were culled by the GSA and put into the mixed uncirculated and mixed circulated sales. Purchasers of any 1878CC GSA coin were limited to a quantity of one from each category. Coins sold like this were labeled and mailed individually.

The big danger is that on occasion, unopened boxes stamped 1878 claiming to be unopened arise on auction sites. Remember that this date was never sold in quantity. If there is no mailing label, one can be certain that the package will not contain an unsearched 1878CC. Also, a definitive diagnostic is to compare the font of the date stamp of a genuine bulk GSA with the "1878".

Good luck.

Mitchell,

This is helpful information for collectors of "CC" GSA silver dollars.

Will you consider expanding on this posting in a future article for Curry's Chronicle? I know many of our readers appreciate learning as much about the GSA sales as possible, especially when it comes to the hidden things to look for when buying these historic dollars (e.g. unopened boxes, authentic GSA cards, etc.)

Rusty

Mitchell-
Yes, this would be an area of C.C. collecting that would most certainly benifit us with more information. I know a fellow member of my local coin club who bought one of those unopened GSA dollars. He bought it with the idea that it could be an unknown treasure, a 1879-CC or 1890-CC, ect., he paid $335 (plus $10 S/H as it was a mail order deal) for it and it turned out to be an 1883-CC, a nice looking coin but a coin he could have gotten anytime for about $190. I'm sure had he just the information that you provided, he would have thought twice. Thanks, Mitchell.
-Randy-

Thanks for the endorsement.

Does anyone have any opinions on whether openly sharing this information will help the fraudsters? I suppose this is a philosophical question as well.

I'm all for knowledge is power and I believe in sharing, but I don't want to help the bad guys get better.

Mitchell

Hi Mitchell,
This information would be very helpful to the collecting community. I am sure that there will always be someone out there trying to deceive, but with the information you have provided and I am sure you will expand upon in the future would be a benefit to us all. As Rusty suggested an article in our Curry's Chronicle would get the information out there en masse. I myself have always wondered about the unopened mailers and their contents. Thanks so much for the useful information.

Loosechange