...a friend of mine needed some extra show money for LB and let me nab this baby for a fair price. IMO she is fully prooflike with nice mirrors. This is my 2nd 21 in PL and I love how on both of them, the fields have ultra die polish lines...millions of them ...thanks 4 looking and please post a picture of your 21 PL if you got one
Less than one-half of one percent of PCGS 1921-P's are PL/DMPL, and that's the most common of the three mints that year. There is, near as I can tell, one single 1921-S adjudicated "DMPL," by NGC. I use Heritage results as a personal method for determining relative rarity of PL/DMPL's. The actual numbers aren't believable because you'd expect them to be disproportionately represented in Heritage sales, being higher-end coins, but the Heritage Archive is large enough to present a usable sample size for comparative purposes. The most common issues in PL/DMPL can form as much as 10-12% of total sales, and once you get under 5% of the total, you're looking at a pretty scarce representation. Less than 4% of 1921 sales results (7200 coins in the case of 1921 across all mints) are noted as PL/DMPL. Scarce, indeed. This one arrived and left my hands as a raw coin, but was undoubtedly PL: This one - a VAM-47, the (one of?) Zerbe die, arrived raw and became more definitive: I would dearly love to see if we can attribute yours, talkcoin.
WOW! Now those are Nice SuperDave! What do you need from me to attribute the coin? When I get to work I can snap better pics using a glass for magnification. I will also post a TrueView of my other 21 in PL and that baby can get an attribution as well I'll be back soon boys
...k here is a large photo of my other one. I am still trying to figure out how to get better pics of the op coin.
My rule of thumb for determining PL/DMPL: I want to be able to clearly read reflected standard newsprint at a bare minimum of 4" from the surface of the coin, at all points of both obverse and reverse fields, for PL. For DMPL, that needs to be a minimum of 6" and preferably more. 1921's aren't the easiest of Morgans to attribute. Outside any "smoking gun" pickup - and I see none on yours - we are reduced to examining minute doubling in various places, and any potential "scribbles" around the eagle's right leg. It requires sharp, high-magnification imagery and a ton of patience. I never_did attribute the first coin I posted above.
Not sure the surfaces are original on that one. Notice how the luster doesn't cartwheel but rather bends in different directions. I've seen this before on morgans that were dipped then cleaned with a very mild abrasive or rubbed with an eraser. Curious how @SuperDave would adjudicate it. That said though, we're only working with 1 set of static photos. Is it in an anacs holder?
Given the differences in production methods between 1921's and previous Morgans, you kind of have to apply a separate set of rules when evaluating them. Based only on these images, the surfaces seem either original or at least market-acceptable to me - I see evidence of mint wash cloudiness in spots, and the toning doesn't alarm me for a 1921.
You have to be careful with these: Your coin appears to be in a plastic holder of some sort. Often, the newsprint will be reflected off the plastic (and thus, easily readable) when the coin underneath doesn't have much mirroring at all. Obviously, in hand the coin may look different - but your pictures show little-to-no-prooflikeness at all.
That ms63 PL is incredible. Question, where do I go (short of taking a class) to learn more about identifying a Morgan that might be a PL vs average business strike?
Short of the glorious gif's talkcoin just posted, it's really very difficult to capture a PL coin photographically. Unless you've captured something reflected in the surfaces, a really nice non-PL strike looks very much like a reflective coin. This one was just seriously lustrous, not PL: In-hand, of course, you can measure the mirrors mechanically but from raw coin images you're always taking chances.
Now go soak it in acetone because you got a little area of thumb oils on it. Rims only man Nice coin!
