I grew up listening to and watching WGN. I grew up in the NW suburbs (Algonquin). I assume you live in the Chicago area.
Unfortunately Suburbs as well and my forum avatar is probably another clue. I do listen to WGN but not too often. One of my favorites on there recently was an old time radio show but they were canceled (luckily they moved to another station).
That is why I initially debated going up to 6.9 (or maybe even 7) so that we can further rank the monsters (this one would be lower on the 6 scale while the moose would be at the top). However, that can create more complications and I decided to just stick with 6 being the top.
There are only 2 or 3 coins that I have ever seen that could give the Moose serious completion. You are correct—this is no Moose, but is still a solid 6 in my book. Perhaps the Moose is not a good archetype for toned Morgan monsters—maybe it is in a class by itself in elusive perfection of tone? Possibly it may be a 7–an ultra monster??
Postscript. As I told @ddddd privately, I bought this coin for $500 in 2009. It has been multiply resold in 2016 for $3500, 2017 for $6500, and 2018, most recently for $20,000+. That is nothing compared to Moose @ $93,550.
This coin is a monster. Solid 6. I love it. As to the franklin I wasn’t a fan of the uneven spotty toning
I am at a 6 for sure. I also wonder if this coin has been to CAC and didn’t sticker. It seems a coin of it’s stature would have been on the desk at CAC at least once. That doesn’t change my opinion at all about it but just something that I thought should be mentioned. Regardless this coins price point is due to the color and not so much the grade or a sticker; it really speaks for itself.
When I owned it, it had not been to CAC. I see no reason to send a coin of that caliber in—as you said, the grade is not relevant to its aesthetics.
If I am putting $20,000 on the line for a coin, I would like to know a separate well respected party would confirm it as solid for the grade. For all I know it could have been a 64 that was color bumped and/or market graded. In that case the luster and surface preservation would be a distraction over the color. I think in this case the CAC doesn’t necessarily add value but more so acts as an insurance.
I agree that CAC isn't needed since the coin stands for itself. However, some of the major buyers insist on having the sticker-particularly if it is to be sold at Legend (since Legend themselves promote CAC coins). If someone was sending this coin to auction, then it would be worth the ~$15 fee for the potential benefit of an increased bidder pool.
While that makes sense, I've seen some market graded (color bumped) coins that received the CAC sticker. There was a recent thread where we discussed if CAC takes market grading into account. While no one knows for sure, the speculation is that they do in some cases. Plus CAC does not have much to worry about in stickering a coin like this MS 66 Morgan. They will happily stand behind the CAC bid and buy this coin at CAC guide for a 66 coin (currently the greysheet CAC bid is $215).
That is a very good point. Buying a 66 as grey sheet sight unseen and this one shows up in the mailbox.
I have thought about that. Honestly, with the exception of the Moose, many of the top sellers in the toning world have not been 67-68 grades. I would say that a lot of the top sellers have been 65-66, with really outstanding toning. With the famous collections of toners (e.g. Battle Creek, Sunnywood, Northern Lights, etc) some are CAC and some aren’t. As I said, my opinion is in the extraordinary toning, not the grade drives the valuation. CAC does not guarantee toning, only grade. To me, if it were in an NGC holder, I would be more concerned about the star, rather than a CAC sticker. Just my opinion, but one look at a super toner confirms its desirability, and emotional buyers could care less.
Personally, I don't see why a CAC sticker would make any difference. A buyer is buying it strictly for the toning. With toners like this the normal "price guide" is irrelevant.