This is an item I bought recently. The seller's pictures are terrible, hopefully I can get mine to show the coin for what it really is. The coin is graded by PCGS, although I'm not going to reveal the grade. Here is the coin What I want to do with this thread, is allow people to guess what the grade is based on the seller's photos. I will allow guesses for the next nine days, that is until December 30th. After that I will take photos of the coin, and make part two of this thread, with my photos, asking people to guess the grade, with the same poll that has be presented in this thread. I will reveal the grade after the poll in part 2 ends. Let's see how many grades change based on photos, and what the real grade of the coin actually is. I encourage you to use the guide I have written, which is in my signature line, along with similar 1883-O Morgan Dollars that have sold elsewhere. From recent things I've seen in the market place, 1883-O can be an odd year to deal with. That is all I am going to say, good luck!
Im going to take a stab in the dark with the horrible photos, what looks to be a dipped and retoned morgan ill say it graded MS64.
Personally I would not grade it above a 65 because it lacks eye appeal to me. But I suspect PCGS said 66.
With the photos as dark as they are, it gives me the feeling that the seller is trying to hide something. Ordinarily, I might think it is MS65/66, but because of the photos, I'll say PCGS gave it an MS64. Chris
Quite a tough one to judge given these pics of course. I'm going to be very conservative than the others and take the choice of 63 in the poll. Something about the field and cheek of the portrait on the obverse between 6 o'clock and 8 o'clock -and- again on the reverse, most of the upper half around the rim/edge just looks suspect. Maybe just an eye-appeal thing that the sellers bad pics are hiding but I'm not sure yet what it could be that is going to make this grade lower. I've red lined the bits that puzzle me most -- not the dark and rainbow toning itself, just the possible negative eye appeal there.
This coin was a Christmas present, so I have yet to get the coin in hand. I have the coin, it is just in a box with wrapping paper. I about expected the comments thus far. Lacking eye appeal, seller trying to hide something, etc. This shall be very interesting to see if anybody changes their mind after seeing my photos, about what the grade should be or what PCGS gave it.
The cheek looks pretty clean -- clean enough for a 65 or 66. However, I have real trouble judging luster from the photos, and while the cheek is the most important area to evaluate when it comes to grading these coins, PCGS grades these coins in large part by the luster as well. I suspect it's a bit muted and the coin graded 64, but I don't feel real confident for the reason listed above, and a 65 would not surprise me in the least.
I guessed MS65 mostly based on what I think it'll look like in hand... seems to be pretty free of major marks and has some alright toning, but also seems to have the luster/cartwheel muted somewhat to keep it from grading higher. Can't wait to see some new pics of this one.
(A Christmas bump!) I have now seen the coin in hand. That is all I will say. I will hopefully have pics up by the 30th in part 2 of this thread.
I went with MS63. It looks like there are a bunch of light marks on the obverse (that are kind of hard to see in the original pics). The luster looks weak and subdued, especially on the obverse. Imo, mark/hit wise, the coin is clean enough for a 65, but the luster is what knocks it down.
With about one hour left I'll give it one more bump. I see the thread's poll got a few more votes over night.
