I said MS-65 immediately, but would want to hear from some of the other Morgan-philes here on the boards.
I obviously posted the coin because I thought it was over graded... I could live w it @ ms64+ or ms64* ....I doubt it would crossover to PCGS or even ANACS for that matter... Id love to shoot a best offer over to the seller: say ms64 or 64+ money just to see what they would say.. I am not going to tho cause if he accepts ill then have to explain that it was just an experiment and I was curious...
It looks SOLID for the grade if you go by comps. If it fails the ANA or PCGS grading standards for an MS-65, let me know why. 1891's: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...S0&_nkw=1891+MS-65+morgan&ghostText=&_sacat=0 Here's some other MS-65's for an 1891-S: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H1.X1891-S ms-65 morgan.TRS0&_nkw=1891-S ms-65 morgan&ghostText=&_sacat=0 There's more for an 1879-S, and the 65's look about the same: http://www.ebay.com/itm/1879-S-MORG...962?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5b0db51452 Waiting to hear from our Morgan experts on the absolute and relative rating of the coin.
Well, I can help you there, Lehigh ....this thread has pics at the top of my 1898 MS-64 PL: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/goldfingers-shiny-silver-friends.259136/ Not saying it's better, worse, whatever...just doing my part to help in the discussion. When you think about it....an MS-65 is clearly better than an MS-64....but can an MS-64 PL or MS-64DMPL or MS-64 Ultra Cameo or all those other varieties....command more $$$ than a straight MS-65 ? I guess they can, right ?
break it out of the slab and send it to pcgs and see what grade you get. not ms65, i would bet. unless of course you are the type who sends in lots of coins all the time. then maybe they would give it a 66.
i think it might even get a details grade from, lets say for example, ANACS. that's right. i think that they might give it scratched, details grade. and i am talking about ANACS here.
The MS65 in this thread has a much cleaner focal area than your MS64 PL. As I stated before, I believe that the prooflike quality of the coin is magnifying the flaws that we are seeing in the photograph of the MS65 in this thread. I think that the coin would look much cleaner in hand. To your other point, PL and DMPL examples can demand a higher price than a standard example of a higher grade that does not have prooflike qualities.
Everyone here, including myself agrees that the coin is either low end for the assigned grade or is overgraded. But to call that coin an MS63 calls your knowledge of the subject into question, as does the belief that PCGS rewards big submitters with higher grades.
Where do you see a scratch that would result in a details grade? Furthermore, are you insinuating that ANACS is more conservative in their grading than PCGS?
If anybody wants to show me WHY this isn't an MS-65 -- either by showing me much better MS-65's or showing me an MS-64 (or lower) that is as nice or nicer than the coin in question -- I'm all ears. We need pics.
I never collected PL or DMPL Morgan Dollars but I rarely passed on a chance to get a nice Morgan that was prooflike on the obverse only since they could be had at a discount. Here are two such coins that I have owned in the past, both graded MS65. I submit that the quality of the obverse of this coin is about the same as the quality of the coin in the OP. The same type of chatter shows up in the obverse fields but was barely noticeable upon in hand inspection. Again, I would grade this coin a low end MS65. Compare that with the next coin: This coin is much cleaner, has deeper mirrors in the fields, and cleaner focal areas though the luster grazes are more evident. This coin is a high end MS65 or low end MS66.