Rainbow toned and prooflike Morgan dollar

Who doesn’t like a nice Morgan dollar. They’re some of the most beautiful and iconic of all US coins. Thankfully they’re also among the most plentiful, even in mint-state grades.

So which one to choose? I hunted through thousands trying to find the right one for my collection and budget. Blast white has a certain appeal, but I like good toning, particularly colorful rim toning; not too much, but enough to give some color and contrast.

I’m really happy with this one. Not only does it have that flashy tone, but it also features dazzling mirror-like surfaces – enough to have earned it a DPL designation from NGC and a PL from PCGS. (both MS63)

I spent literally hours trying to capture the full beauty through the plastic but finally had to give up. You’ll have to watch the video to get a real sense of how it looks in hand!

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
AR Dollar (38.1mm, 26.73g, 6h)
Dated 1886. Philadelphia mint
Obverse: Liberty facing left, wearing Phrygian cap, wreath, and diadem inscribed LIBERTY; E·PLURIBUS·UNUM above, 13 stars around; date below
Reverse: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around eagle facing with wings outstretched, head left, holding olive branch and arrows in claws, wreath encircling; * ONE DOLLAR * below
Mintage: 19,963,000
In PCGS encapsulation, graded MS63PL.​

All in all, it’s a nice ending to a recent run of bad luck I’ve had with Morgans. This is actually the second one I bought recently – the first one ended up stolen in the mail. Thankfully, the package was insured and I got my money back. Still a shame, though. And as a matter of fact I wasn’t sure I’d ever get this one, either…it was lost in shipping for about a month before a missing mail report miraculously managed to flush it into the open again. Hey – all’s well that ends well!

In hand:

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Some more photos highlighting the bright blazing colors:




PCGS photo:



Thanks for taking a look! Feel free to comment and/or post your own Morgans, favorite toned coins, etc.

 

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Nice coin! You can see the mirrors and the "cameo" contrast well on the video. The toning around the rim adds some extra character!

 

Nice coin! My first (and only) Morgan to be mail-ordered (which also had nice toning) also disappeared via Registered mail.

 

That would have made a fun GTG!

 

From the first two photos I like the second one the best. The toning on the first is on the darker side and over time, I think it will continue to turn darker. The second one also looks to be a bit more on the PL side with a more frosty look. To me, it has better eye appeal.

 

Thanks! "Extra character" is a great way to put it. Gives the coin some individuality!

 

That's too bad! Hopefully you were able to be reimbursed. This was the first time I've had a package stolen - it arrived in my mailbox neatly slit open and empty. The coin wasn't as nice as this one, but it had some sweet rim toning.

 

It would have! I didn't think about that.

 

I tend to agree with you. It was just so tough to try and get any of the color to show without getting glare off the plastic. Even though the first photo shows more color it's kind of subpar in quality. At least the second one is sharper and more clear.

I wonder too, if I knew my way around GIMP a bit more, I'd be able to get rid of the glare in editing. I tried and tried but couldn't seem to figure out how.

Ideally I could get the best of both worlds by positioning the lighting in such a way that it captures some of the color's vibrancy and also gives a sense of the reflectiveness of the fields. But I'd have to crack it out of the slab to do that.

Perhaps @Denis Richard would have some ideas and tips for shooting coins like these through plastic.

 

Very nice, thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for the kind words!

Thank you! It can be hard to pass up nice coins when you're trying to find THE coin, but it's usually worth it. Too many times I've impulse-purchased only to think, "why didn't I just wait and get a better one." The nice things with Morgans is there are so many of them, if you aren't particular about a date or mint you'll probably find one you like sooner rather than later anyway.
I really enjoyed going through your online gallery recently and I remember your lowball Morgan. I actually have a lowball Morgan myself. I should dig it out and take pictures sometime, just for fun. Kind of interesting how so many Morgans did not circulate at all, while at the same time many of them evidently circulated quite heavily.

 

I have the same problems but I don’t worry about it. I just do the best I can with what I have.