grade this Mprgan

I'm working on my Morgan grading skills and would like the forum's help in grading this coin:





Thanks!

 

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CT,would you say that's a weak strike or wear on the hair?Weak strike right?

 

I would guess an AU - ms 60

 

It's difficult to say without holding the coin whether its wear or a weak strike. New Orleans coins tend to often be weakly struck. However, this coin looks like a slider to me. I would say AU-55 or 58. But, I'm certainly not an expert.

 

I don't know! This is the reason that I am asking, I am trying to grade a bunch of these things and I am having a bear of a time figuring out what is wear and what is striking deficiency. Is there some grading rule I'm missing that would make this all a whole lot easier? Also, how does one distinguish when the breaks in a Morgan's luster are the result of wear and when they are the result of jostling around in a bag (acceptable wear)? Especially when they both occur on the highest points of the coin and look identical to me? HELP!

 

I would say AU-58 MAYBE MS-60.

It seems like a weak strike to me, but I usually do better on grading coins when im holding them in my hands and I can look at it at different angles.


-Rob

 

Try tilting it in the light and looking right above the eye to see if there is a break in the luster or any sort of small flat spot.

 

AU-58 looks about right

 

CT,I'm probably not the right person to ask but I'm almost for certain that this is a high weak strike.This makes it more harder to tell the difference on if it's wear or a weak strike IMO but when it is a weak strike the luster is unimpaired.Anyway the strike is a very important part of the grade so I'd say AU.

 

Yeah that actually does appear to be a weak strike. The cheek on the obverse has very little scratches for a coin with that many marks in the secondary focal areas. The luster also appears to be lacking. Otherwise it be a nice coin LOL.

 

CT,here's a link that may help you.It shows which Morgans are usually weak struck and which aren't.....www.coingrading.com/strike1.html.

 

Hmmm, loos like it still has some luster, but there are a couple of slick spots, so how about AU-58. Then again, I could be wrong and it would go MS-62. The 1887-O is known for a weak strike.

B

 

I would think that if there are breaks in luster, it would be AU58. I wasn't aware that there were any acceptable breaks in luster that permit a coin to still carry the MS designation. But I'm not a competent grader.

 

Actually, the luster is very strong, I intentionally photographed the coin at that angle to decrease the glare from the luster, so that the details would be discernable.

 

That is what I thought too until I saw this coin:


This coin is chop45's from another thread and it has breaks in the areas I've circled yet it is graded MS, so breaks must be allowable in some circumstances. I just can't figure out when.

 

I apologize if I'm coming off as argumentative, I'm not trying to be, I just am trying to figure this out. I think I'm pretty competant at grading most series, but the Morgans are giving me a tough time.

 

I just cant see that coin going MS-60.

 

If we only could compare the two coins in hand it would be apparent the difference between bag marks and wear

 

This is a great topic in my opinion so don't apologize. This sort of discussion helps me a lot because I like morgans but I'm not really competent enough to always tell if I'm getting an MS or AU coin.

I can't tell from the photo if there are any breaks in the luster. But AU58 is one of my favorite grades anyway. To me, an AU58 is sort of an MS62-63 with a small amount of wear but with a [sometimes large] discount in price. They are usually pretty nice looking coins to own while being more affordable. A lot of them look nicer to me than many MS60-61s.

 

Its hard to tell how "baggy" the coin is from the image, but the hit on Liberty's nose would limit the coin to a 63 max IMHO. From the amount of marks visible in the fields, I would guess an MS62 with an outside shot at 63.