Here’s one of latest Morgan’s, an 1894-S. It’s one of the tougher ones to find. It looks good in my folder.
The surfaces have a fake shiny look. One of the basic skills to learning how to tell a circulated coin from an Uncirculated one is to swirl it around under a bright light. Morgan Silver Dollars are one of the best coins to use to learn this skill. A Mint State piece will play with the reflection like a wheel in motion. If that reflection is unbroken all the way around the piece, it is probably Mint State. If there are any breaks, it probably isn’t. That type of shine is called mint luster. This is caused by the flow of the metal when the coin is struck. Coins are struck under great pressure. For a silver dollar, it’s something like 100 tons per square inch. The medal literally flows to fill the die to form the design elements. That medal flow creates mint luster. Mint luster can only be created in the striking process. Once it has been destroyed, usually by wear, it cannot be restored. Another “tell” in this 1894-S dollar is the area from the lower rim on the obverse to the top of the date and stars. Notice that area is darker, which is natural, while the area above it is lighter. The person who polished the coin did not get that lower area for some reason.
Notice how the surfaces are smoothed over as compared to a coin that has not been polished. Another tell is a raised edge of letters, numbers, and devices. A Google search for detection of polished coins with images may be helpful.
I also agree with you John but the price was right. I felt the darker areas were recovering the low areas that were polished. At any rate it looks nice in my Whitman’s folder.
That’s all that counts. The piece was probably a nice VF before someone messed with it. If you a problem coin with the price adjusted for that it’s okay. If you paid EF money, that’s where problems start. I learned through the school of hard knocks. I like to try to help collectors avoid paying that tuition.
