PCGS Photograded at MS65. This is a VAM 1. It has extra cheek and neck scratches, and I'm wondering how much lower it would grade because of it. I took a whole point off to MS64 but I think it is serious enough to go to MS63. What say you compatriots?
Yeah, even MS62 is a little optimistic. Too much extracurricular activity going on. Think of it in terms of the way your eye moves through it, start there. Is it graceful, or is it erratic, and chaotic? Eye movement is the chief determinant on how you feel about it. That's why artists pay so much attention to it. It's why engravers do, too, when they put in and take out detail. That's a conscious decision on their part to control your eye movement through the coin. They know the detail is the first place the eye goes to. And you thought they left all that to chance, lol... Look at your obverse, again. Do you see why MS61, now? Maybe MS62, but on a good day? Your eye can't sit still on that lovely thing. It's certainly not moving the way the engraver intended it to move. After all that painstaking work on it he did...
Not an expert on Morgans, but agree with MD: too many marks on a prime area. If they were spread out more, a bit more tolerable.
Here's a stupid question: 10 scratches/dings all disbursed around the coin looks "better" than 10 scratches all concentrated in one area like the above coin (at least to me). Do TPGs take that into account ? If "eye appeal" and other asesthetics (admittedly, subjective) matter....how can it NOT matter since you can't help but be drawn to all the marks on the cheek ? At least on a coin where they are all over you have to scan and look for a few seconds to see them all.
That's not stupid. Do you want to know what stupid is? They are. Do they take what you're asking into account? Yes. It can't be helped. You just went over why it can't be helped, you feel "better" about the first type. That's not just you. It's everyone. It's even the TPG graders. But are they conscious of it? They're no more conscious of it than anybody else is. Which translates, they're unconscious. There it is, the way our eye moves through the coin. The engraver was conscious of it, and painstakingly so. NGC and PCGS? It's not even in their vocabulary. Some advice. Be smart. Pay attention to it when you're bidding, and you won't be sorry for it.
I could not see grading that coin any higher than MS-62, and that's pushing it. There is no way that it is an MS-63, until the standards change.
I have been a CT member for 3 1/2 years now, and in that time I have learned many things. One of the foremost is: When the majority of members agree that a grade is MS61, I believe the grade is MS61...no argument. Thanks again for everyones input...humbly, Spark
Yes, not all marks/dings/scrapes/scratches are created equal. Marks on the obverse won't be penalized as much as the obverse just like ones hidden in the design won't hurt as much as the fields and so on. On Morgans the cheek is the worst place you can have marks