Gambling on sliders, Morgan style?

Not unless it finds a buyer. If, as you say, there's a chance that it could grade out professionally at less than 55, it doesn't sound like much of a worthwhile gamble to me. Though I suppose that depends on factors like eye appeal.

I know nothing about VAM varieties. Could there have been something in that regard which boosted the price?

 

Decent looking coin. Looks pretty solid for the grade, in my opinion. But is there upgrade potential to 58, to use the earlier example? Maybe? I dunno.

It's not a game I would play, simply because of the expense and hassle a crackout and resubmission would entail.

I do note, that in looking through the PCGS auction archives for 1884-S dollars between AU55 and AU58 grades, that one sold for $5.25. LOL

Which sorta made me do a double-take until I saw the date of the auction.

 

Why use NGC priceguide for comparison on a PCGS coin? I mean, nothin' wrong with that, I suppose, but I'm just curious.

 

58's bring too much money for them to give this coin the bump.

 

If it makes any sense to you, I lose on grades more than I win, but I win more dollars than I lose . . . it may take a little thinking about it to unnerstand.

 

I seldom to never use Greysheet myself, and will typically use two or three online references (Numismedia a lot), and on rare occasions will pull the crusty old fleabitten Redbook off the shelf. So yeah, I get it.

 

To use a rather low budget example of that, I always liked the VG8 to F12 spread on Barber halves, when I was doing those in a Dansco. I looked for pieces priced in the VG range that had a nearly full LIBERTY on the headband. I scored a few Fine coins for VG money. At the time, there was a decent jump in value over that spread. Not that I was doing it to make money. I was just trying to be a savvy collector. Maybe it worked, because I did OK when I later sold that collection (which was pretty far along but not 100% completed).

 

I'll give you a great example . . .

I bought a better date $20 Lib in a PCGS AU55 holder. The coin is a higher grade AU58 every day of the week, with a strong shot at mint state. Coins like this bring very strong money, as few are graded, and pleasing original examples are in very short supply.

I could have cracked it and sent it in raw for an upgrade, but I felt it would almost assuredly get a gold CAC sticker. Below are the photos of the coin . . .




Paying full UNC money for this coin in the AU55 holder would have felt foolhardy to me, but spending full AU58 money felt justifiable. Fortunately, I felt it was affordable, and jumped.


Boy, am I glad I did . . . In this date it's the only coin so-stickered, all grades considered.




My point? Even though this is not a Morgan Dollar, it underscores the fact that while upgrades are less likely to be awarded to better date coins where large price increases will weigh on the minds of the graders, there are coins out there which justify taking the chance, but not routinely!