can you please give me a grade opinion on this one? how much would it be worth? sorry for the quality, it is my cell phone camera - if you need a closeup of any area, let me know. i must say i like luster of this morgan.
For a cell phone camera, that's pretty darn good! It's a nice coin. I'd call it a 60/61. What worries me are the black spots on the reverse and the hit on Ms. Morgan's cheek. Provided I'm correct (don't count on it), price is $20-25 or so. Edit: I'm assuming those marks on the top part of the reverse are die cracks. VERY cool indeed. I'll have to see if that has a VAM designation when I get home.
it looks like a die crack to me too. more pics, mostly to show how clean the fields are, and some more detail (that's why taken with my camera LED on)
Is there anything I can do about carbon spots? Will they spread? more opinions? where do you see wear? her cheek? would this coin be worth getting it graded at PCGS or NGC?
I'd say AU50, there appears to be light wear on both sides. I also think the coin was dipped, more than once. Those dark spots are the remains of dirt & very dark toning. As a general rule of thumb, if a coin is not worth $100 - $150 then it's not worth having it graded. At least in my opinion.
so because of those black carbon spots, you assume that the coin was dipped? or is it something else on the picture?
They are not carbon spots, but to answer simply, yes that's part of it. The luster being subdued is also part of it. I would say that at one time the entire coin was mostly black - then it was dipped and what you see remaining now is the result.
could you please clarify that about luster being subdued. do you mean that luster is subdued on the WHOLE surface or just parts of it? are you sure its not just the picture, because luster seems very symetrical and without flaws, when I look at the coin
My opinion is that the luster is subdued on the entire coin. Yes it still has luster, just about any coin in XF or better has luster. But luster has degrees, some coins just have more of it than others. A dipped coin will always have less luster than it had before it was dipped. Coin dips are acid and they remove luster. If coins are dipped properly then only a tiny bit of the luster is removed. If they are not dipped properly or they are dipped for too long or too many times - then more, or in some cases all of the luster, is removed. With your coin, there is not enough wear for the amount of luster that is missing to have worn off. So the only other way it can be removed is by dipping. Also, a coin of that age should have some signs of toning even if it was stored properly for all those years. Toning is inevitable, it cannot be stopped completely. It can be lessened however with proper storage. But your coin has no toning whatsoever. All it has are the dark spots. It is quite typical for a coin that was allowed to tone almost completely black and then dipped, to have those very same balck spots. For when toning is that deep and has been there that long, the only way to remove it is to dip the coin for too long a time period. But, most folks who dip coins like this know this. They know that if they dip the coin too long then all of the luster will be gone. And if the luster is gone then can't sell the coin for as they could otherwise. So they only dip it lightly, just enough to remove the vast majority of the dark toning, but not so much that it removes all of the luster. The end result is a coin that looks just like the one you posted - thes my opinion.
thanks for explanation! now, does that mean that if I try to get the coin graded by PCGS or NGC that they wont grade it? Also, can you show some coin with similar age, that has "original toning"? That means that it is original and undipped, and has reasonable toning for its age. Please? Thank you !
No that's not what I mean - it could go either way. NGC or PCGS may well grade the coin or they may body bag it. They would see the same things I see. Here is a coin of the same date that has original toning and of about the same grade - Click Here And while this next example is not exactly what I think your coin looked like before it was dipped, it is quite similar. Obverse - Reverse
that is how I estimated it when I bought it! now, I am a novice grader, and just trying to learn about it... so it was just my estimate
