How many MS67's do you think I have here?

I tend to agree, but Morgan Dollars seem to be graded differently than other coins. Here's an MS67 CAC from eBay. Imagine a Franklin Half with those cheek marks...

 

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Sliding scale?

 

No way, outside of contacting PCGS, of finding out the year a coin was put into a 3.1, right ddddd ?

You have no idea if it was early 19993 or late 1998.

 

Some Morgan and Peace dollars were used at casinos and circulated, but most just sat in bank vaults. These coins were mainly created to put a price floor under western silver. The result has been many heavily bag-marked coins.

I suspect the popularity of the series made these coins susceptible to "gradeflation" over time. Instead of adhering to common grading standards, they seem to have evolved to being graded on a Gaussian distribution of the known population. This is just the impression I have. I really can't back it up with anything.

 

Yea, Meow gets it. Think they grade baseball cards like that too. But Meow does not really agree with that method.

 

The GUIDE BOOK by David Bowers is a great read, if you want to learn more about them. There are other great books, too, but I haven't read them.

MSDs are big and easy to see. Scuffs and hairlines show easily, but the coins are big to see the features on the obverse and reverse. That's another reason why they are popular.

 

PCGS is usually tough as nails on 1881-S dollars because they are so common in nice condition. That one looks subpar to me for an MS-67 because of the cheek. The puzzling thing is that CAC liked it.

Perhaps @C-B-D has more MS-67s that I thought in the brave new, grade-flation world.

 

Did you consider keeping them in the OGHs and submitting ALL of them to CAC ?

 

Yes I did. But Even a 65 gold CAC would probably fail to reach MS66 money. So if I have a 67 in there I’d be leaving a lot on the table.

 

I think the 1879-S if it is a an MS-67 will go for $500 or so, right ?

 

Yes.

 

The first thing I look at on a Morgan is the rim then the breastplate.
1879 MS66 the grain?
1879 MS67
1885 MS64
1884 MS64
1884 MS66
1885 MS 67 Strong features

 

Another factor in the "grade-flation" controversy is that many of the certified coins have been bulk graded. Under this system the grading services grade these coins at a reduced fee. You can even specify that the grading service need to slab coins that fail to reach a certain grade level. All of this encourages quicker opinions and incentives to give the grade a little push.

You have to pay to normal fees to get the better dates graded. That, in addition to the fact that small grade increases can result in massive price increases, can make the grading more conservative for the better dates.

 

Do the ANA Grading Standards -- and the TPGs themselves -- take into account the size of a coin (larger = easier to see blemishes) as well as the metal it is made of (gold is softer than nickel) ?

 

The answer is sort of a "yes and no."

First of all the TPGs seemed to ignore the ANA standards for circulated coins soon after they got in the business. When I was collecting Indian Cents in the 1960s, a full LIBERTY on the headband was part of the "Fine" grade and certainly required for a VF. Full lines down the ax on a Mercury dime was a similar standard. For the TPG's VG to became the new Fine. I heard some of the dealers, who worked with collectors who had smaller budgets, comment about how unfair that was.

The "yes and no" comes in the size of a mark compared to the size of the coin. A medium sized mark in a $20 gold piece might look like the Grand Canyon on a gold dollar. It could even make the gold dollar a "no grade." So size does matter, and gets into some subjective issues.

 

That's a lot to digest, esp to hope for 65 to 67 even if a different TPG and maybe 3 decades later. Still, would guess the second one down...the second 79-S...and the first 84-O might be your best possibilities at most. That said, I might think going back to PCGS would give you a better chance, but on the other hand, so much has changed with grading in 30 years, it's hard to say. If you don't mind me asking, what is your reasoning for using NGC...? I like their holders better and sometimes think they grade a bit more lenient than PCGS...not so nit-picky with body-bagging an otherwise good coin for something totally unseen but only by the "trained/experienced pros." Thanks, and good luck.

 

I hope MorganDude and some of the other Morgan experts or grading experts chime in here. We've had a few like JM....more needed !

 

All Morgan's are collectable and keepers in my opinion. Unfortunately, I do not see any 67's. They are all just above mid 60's. I could easily be wrong. Thanks for the post. good luck.

 

NGC just because I’ve been using them more as of late. I tend to send them my gold and copper primarily but since I don’t have a big order to send in to PCGS right now I decided to let these Morgan’s tag along on my already-growing NGC order. I prefer to use PCGS for silver type coins.

 

The 2nd 79 S is my top contender. I’m not sure what they will think, about the mark on the reverse though? Hopefully they aren’t too harsh?