For the first time, Professional Coin Grading Service will be displaying the “End of the Trail VIII Collection” of Morgan Silver Dollars, which carries the lowest grade point average in the “Low Ball” PCGS Set Registry®. This extremely difficult to assemble numismatic collection will be displayed at the PCGS booth (#701) at the upcoming American Numismatic Association 2014 Chicago World’s Fair of Money, August 5 – 9.
“The appropriately named ‘End of the Trail’ Morgan dollar collection has a Poor weighted grade point average of only 1.130. It is the all-time finest, or in this case, the worst-of-the-worst basic Morgan dollar set in the Low Ball category. While collectors have a lot of fun with the Low Ball sets, remember that it often is just as difficult and exciting to build a low grade set as it is to assemble a high grade collection,” said PCGS President Don Willis.
Free, educational brochures about this collection will be available at the show while supplies last. The brochure contains illustrations of the top ten favorite low-grade Morgan dollar coins of the set’s owner, collector Mike Hoyman of Alaska.
Hoyman’s number one favorite is an 1878 eight tail feathers variety that is missing more than 99 percent of the obverse but has enough reverse design remaining to distinguish the eight feathers. It is graded PCGS PO-1.
PCGS authenticators were unable to determine the specific VAM variety for that coin and some others in the collection because the grades are so low. Of the 97 coins in the set, 87 of them are graded Poor (PCGS PO-1) and the other 10 are graded Fair (PCGS FR-2).
The entire End of the Trail VIII Collection can be viewed online at www.pcgs.com/setregistry/alltimeset.aspx?s=82663.
“PCGS launched the Low Ball registry category in 2007 as a fun and challenging way for collectors to compete to see who has the lowest graded coins. It’s much harder than you would think, but there are now 825 registered Low Ball sets of U.S. coins,” said BJ Searls, Collectors Universe Set Registry & Special Projects Director.
The PCGS Set Registry (www.pcgs.com/setregistry) was established in 2001 and now hosts over 70,000 U.S. and world coins sets. For additional information about PCGS and its services, visit www.PCGS.com or call PCGS Customer Service at (800) 447-8848.
Am I the only one left wondering how do they verify a coin is not artificially (ie worn down in the short term) worn? We all understand you can’t make a coin mint again, but what’s so difficult about low balls? I think this is dumb
Yeah … but what is the fun in cheating? This is a lowball set. Lighten up.
You have missed the point entirely. It’s just for fun and not really that serious. You wouldn’t be very smart to ruin coins to make a low ball set. They would be worth far less than before you started and in some cases the grading of the coin would cost more than the actual value of the coin. The only thing you win is bragging rights that your set is the lowest.
Well, someone could “artificially” wear down a coin. But, he would be shooting himself in the foot because then he would be destroying a coin that would’ve been worth more if it was left unmolested.
Umm… Did you read the article? Some people collect lowball coins and go to great lengths to acquire a set of them, like the collector in this article. I just don’t understand all the effort.
My comment above was in response to “Joe s” comment, NOT the article.
Low ball coins are really about finding the lowest grade coin that can be graded problem free. PCGS and SSDC sets the rules and collectors who want to try their hand are more than welcome. With money a top notch high end coin can be had. The difference in finding a low enough grade-able problem free coin is finding one in the first place. Most are damaged in some way or have since been melted. The lowest grade is a PO01 and its never a slam dunk. So those who I suspect collect these coins look for the right coins in grades that the TPG service can verify and start building a set from there. The Top100 is even more challenging than the basic low ball set posted here. Some collectors caught the low ball bug several years ago and still live with it. Dr. Sheldon created the grading scale and most of us has seen coins graded MS70s or PF70s but how many have seen in person a graded PO01 Morgan dollar outside of images on registry sets or auction sites? This looks to be a rare opportunity to see something never before assembled all come together in a single low ball set. Its more of a journey in looking and being able to grade a coin yourself before the TPG service gets to see it and confirm what it is. If these coins could speak who knows what hands they all passed though before ending up in these PCGS holders.
You guys give kudos away too easily. These lowball coins are a joke and people can easily cheat, which no one considers. You only consider that it’s possibly fun. It’s a joke
This set seems destined to stand the test of time. By that I mean your time. You neither understand what the grading system is or are only after high-end coins which most of are after. Those who look for the worse coin for wear have really undertaken the challenge to find the worse coins still not melted or damaged in some sort of way. TPG will slam a coin with anything seen as un-natural wear. Like the high-end coins with altered surfaces, artificial color, tooling, rim bumps, whizzing, and other coin doctor enhancement efforts. This set of coins dates back to 1992-1993 according to information related to this article and for over 21 years several dozen low ball collectors have been actively searching for missing examples. It may not be what you collect but from your remarks and comments its safe to say low ball collecting is not something you will ever be interested in. PCGS, NGC, ANACS will grades coins and authenticates the VAMs, the date and mint for each coin as much as possible. Some coins look to be unidentifiable so they must have better equipment to detect what is needed than we do. This is only one set. How may other type sets are out there with collectors still looking for low ball coins?
Well Joe s. has his opinion and he lets it be known. The challenge posted on the 2014 PCGS registry awards for the Morgan Dollar with Major variety low ball set states ” We challenge any collector to best a set with a GPA of 3.80″. Some collections are not ever going to be understood no matter who or what is said about it. The concept was and is simple. Build a set of coins whereby you find the lowest grade of coin and have a TPG confirm it. No TPG service will grade a coin they see with anything suspect about it and that includes artificial wear. Some of those coins were pocket pieces for years and some were out of circulation for decades. Seems this collector knows a lot about the coins he has graded and if research is any indication check all the previous No. #1 low ball sets. You will see that this has been going on since early 2007. It just so happens that this collection is a compiling of all the best ever graded gathered into one collection both past & present. This is not about kudos. This is more about preserving the worse grade of coins before they become damaged. More history is in just one of those ounce’s of silver than most peoples life time. To you Joe s. and others who could care less about something they know very little of your knowledge and understanding of what this exhibition is all about is rather shallow. I tend to agree with PCGS challenge on this one.
On 01/05/2019 this particular set became a perfect PO01 set with all (97) Morgan dollars finally being graded. PCGS was right all along and in two short years from the 2014 ANA exhibition PCGS awarded that set the first ever HOF award for its accomplishments. The set as of 01/10/2021 has been replicated twice but difficult to duplicate at the same time. Too many Pop 1 coins present a major challenge for that to happen at this time. This is only one other Lowball registry set that has all graded PO01s in a major category and (10) of those coins remain Pop 1’s as well.
Slot machines and years of flipping them through millions of hands