GTG: 1886 Morgan Dollar

Wow!! Stellar review of the coin! Thank you for the in-depth review.

 

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And now..... The reveal...

 

Only about 5-10% of the grade concerns the reverse. They barely look at it.

 

A 65, in other words.

 

Well played!

 

That is not quite true. The breakdown is more like 60/40, with the obverse more important. A borderline reverse will be carried by the obverse. But, if the reverse is obviously a lower grade, the overall grade will be impacted.

Haha, nice. I still think I'm going to say it would get a 65 today, and most likely the plus.

Old timers would argue that's grade inflation, and this is an accurately graded 64. They may be right, they may be wrong. Who am I to say?

 

I just hate to point this out
But that is actually die file lines or feed finger gouges most likely

 

Given that grading is an entirely subjective undertaking, you have every right to say.

We, as the numismatic community writ large including the TPG's, could decide this was henceforth MS67 level and it would be so.

 

Are you guy's talking about the vertical lines at the eagle's right wing tip?

If so, those lines are raised and are notated as VAM-1I as SuperDave had pointed out.

 

That's exactly what I thought when I saw it. Earlier this year, I sent in a raw 1886 that got MS65 from PCGS and I think this one is a better example.

 

Does anyone know what caused it, it seems like I've had one of those before. I just can't remember exactly what caused those wavy (like a potato chip) lines

 

I know literally zero about VAMs. Thus, I stand corrected. It sounds like this die resembles the 1836 Capped Bust Half, O-105 (down at the bottom, next to the 50C):

 

Your LFPC pics do have a tendency to hide minor stuff. With the full slab shots I'd say it got a 64+ maaaybe 65. Should at least green bean though

 

Yeah, the marks on her cheek visible in the slab shot are not as bad as they look. It all depends on the angle of lighting. But it will be coming your way soon. You can look at in hand and will have a much better opinion than trying to guess based on images. The reverse has a minor lamination going on at the T in UNITED, it might be hard to see in the images, but it's pretty neat.

 

Late to the grading party. From the original pictures, I could see it as a 66. The angle of the shot hid a lot of the minor scuffing on the cheek. In the OGH shot, those distracting minor luster interruptions on the cheek jump out at you.

I could see it going as a 65; however, it just goes to show how hard it is to nail a grade via a photo. Being able to rotate and tilt the coin/slab in hand typically hides nothing.

Either way, I really like that Morgan. I'll bet the luster is booming. I'd leave it in the OGH. If you wanted to sell it at some point, just due to current market conditions, I'd send it to CAC. OGH + CAC would bring a premium in my humble opinion.

 

Glad they agreed with me. Too much on the cheek for a 65. At least for when I send them in.