I picked these up with a few other morgans and a few peace dollars. I just happen to be looking in the book and noticed that they are semi key dates. They sound right, look right, and weigh right. But Im far from being an expert in anything so any help would be greatly appreciated
The Chinese fakes have gotten so good for worn coins like that there's no way to tell without seeing them in hand. The L on the '04 bothers me. But given the rest of the coin my guess is that it might have been removed from a jewelry setting. So it might be genuine albeit damaged. As for the other, who knows. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't.
The 04 is heavily damaged as GDJMSP pointed out, possibly from being a setting in a piece of jewelry and pried out with a flathead or something. Notice the twisted rim from 3 - 4 o'clock on the reverse as well as at the top 11 o'clock same side. The 1892, I agree with Without the chance of examining both in hand, it would be impossible to authenticate from a photo.
I don't see anything that makes me think counterfeit. The 1904-S matches VAM 9, and the '92-S looks like reverse C3b (so either VAM 4 or 7). Both are damaged though, the '04 has rim damage, and the '92 looks like it was harshly cleaned.
I think the 04 S is real. She's got one gnarly rim ding at 3 OClock on the reverse though. I think BUuncirculated's hypothesis sounds reasonable. Someone pried it out of a holder or with a screwdriver or something similiar.
