Thoughts on this 1880-CC Morgan?

So, there's this (other) guy at work who's discovered coin collecting. He's enthusiastic, eager, and a bit on the impulsive side. Today, he brought in this:




26.6 grams, passes the magnet test, doesn't set off my alarm bells. I haven't spent a lot of time looking at mid-grade circulated Morgans, but I'm guessing VF -- not too worn, but I see no luster anywhere. "Old cleaning"? Oh, probably.

Anybody see any red flags?

 

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No. Looks like a perfectly normal vf 30 that may or may not have been cleaned years ago. I can’t tell from pics. But looks 100% real to me

 

Better then a 30 i think. Calling all morganholics

 

Looks good to me. Actually looks close to mine for wear. Looks like about a 30 to me as well. Maybe cleaned, maybe not but it's free of dings and scratches.

 

I don't see any red flag signs

 

Thanks, everyone. I'm starting to feel a bit more confident in calling genuine/fake, estimating grade, and looking for damage. I'll be sure to post here the next time that confidence gets me in trouble.

 

Definitely a genuine coin that should straight grade. As a bonus it's a less common reverse of '78 without the dash under the second 8 making it a VAM-4 Top 100 list VAM.

 

I went back and took a closer look...the flattening of the denticles means this coin was used on a poker table more than once. That and the stars. And the wear on hair elements was more than at first glance, as well as wing tips on the reverse, but the breast feathers are gone.

On whole, however, I thought 35 would not be too high, even with previous cleaning. On top of that, not sure where the VAM-4 takes it.

Dave Waterstraat, care to elucidate for us? Thank you in advance...Spark

 

Absolutely. See attached link. http://www.vamworld.com/1880-CC VAM-4

 

VF35 IMHO

Can't rule out an old cleaning from the pics, but it looks quite nice.

 

TY Sir! Reading now...Spark

 

Well, NGC doesn't list the VAM-4, but normal at VF35 is around $250. Add VAM-4 and you're looking at at least $350. De-escalate to compensate for "problem" status for the cleaning and $300 seems a fair valuation if for sale and if buying.

On eBay your eyes will pop out for the $$ they want for 63-65 range GSA-holdered specimens.

Big thanks to Dave Waterstraat for the link to Vamworld. Op's coin has debris occluding the signifying artifacts that show it is truly a VAM-4, but closer inspection reveals them to be there.

Spark

 

1880/9 Rev. of '78. Harshly cleaned.

 

I do not feel good of this coin. If you look at the denials of this coin, they are not sharp, but mushy, and too much trash between them. This is one area you look for on any coin that you find to see if it is indeed a real coin of that time. Some, of the other areas are not sharp as they should be. The eagle's breast is not sharp as it should be. The hair lines are not sharp, as they should be.

 

Is the color accurate?

 

The above is completely incorrect.

This coin is real, albeit cleaned. It's not bad for a first CC Morgan Dollar.

 

Probably not; let me try again with explicit color-temperature correction.