What would you grade this Common Date Morgan?

A solid 65 at a minimum.

 

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I looked at it for about as long as a PCGS grader would and I noticed the small what I'm assuming is a strikethrough on the reverse along with all the other uncommon die Cracks around the date
What is on the left wimg??? Crack or hair?


65

 

@Dave Waterstraat

 

MS65 maybe. I see what looks like the mint mark tilted left and maybeeee the die chip in the first 8 so possibly VAM-67? Beyond that....

 

Solid 65

 

64. They're tough on this date.

 

64...at least, that's what shows, imho...the TPGs give a lot of leeway for bag marks, they might go as high as 65+...looks like a die chip on the mm...Spark

 

I'm going to dissent about the grade and say 64. I don't think there's enough "creamy" cheek on this for a 65. There appears to be a lot of little contact marks on the cheek that would be more apparent if the coin were tipped around in the light a bit. 81-S is supposed to have really flashy luster, and anything interfering with that flash is going to be noticed quickly.

 

I would go with 65 I do like that there is not a lot of chatter on the face as you see in a lot of morgans

 

Good eye, I didn't catch that when I was photographing it. It's a hair that did not blow off.

 

I go 64, but again here is my question to those who graded it higher, those hits to the cheek area and front neck still keep your grades high ? Explain please want to keep understanding these things.

 

I'm sure the hits on the face would be minuscule if you had this in hand. The computer screen enhances every minor flaw.

 

Ok, Sorry for the deception, but this Morgan is NOT a San Francisco issue. The 1881 dated Morgans that come from any other Mint other than San Francisco take quite a big leap up in price going up from MS-64. I also made the assumption it was an S Mint Morgan when I was going through all of my raw Morgans. I keep them in the BCW holders that are exactly the same size as the older White ANACS holders. So When I looked at this, my first assumption was, wow, this looks like a MS-65 1881-S Morgan. Then I turned the holder over to look at the reverse when I noticed that it was actually the New Orleans issue.

The New Orleans issue jumps in the price guide from $175 in MS-64 to $1100 in MS-65, $2150 in MS-65+ and $10,000 in MS-66. My jaw dropped when I had told myself that I thought it was a decent looking MS-65. Of course PCGS and NGC I'm sure grade the "O" on a much tougher curve because of that jump in price. My gut feeling is that this one would probably come back as a 64 or 64+ if I sent it in.

For those of you who were trying to VAM this one, it would have been impossible. Sorry for misleading you, I was only wanting an unbiased opinion and the most common mint mark for this date is the S. Again, I assumed it was an S mintmark when I looked at it again after several months had gone by. This one is an 1881-O VAM-53. Here is the unaltered image with the actual mint mark. The obverse was not changed at all and the reverse only had the very small area around the mint mark altered to show an S.

 

It's all subjective. It just depends on the size of the marks and the number of marks.

Here is an 1881-S MS-65 CAC Morgan for comparison.

 

I only spent an hour trying to VAM it. No problem.

 

Dude then that was a real bad picture on the reverse on your first set. I enhanced the image, That sure looked an "S" to me.

 

You dirty dog.

Several of the members were onto the mintmark being strange. Feel bad for the folks who spent their entire lunch break trying to VAM it.

So now the question... when you gonna send it in?

 

Don't know if I should take this seriously or just blow it off as wasted time.

 

Wasted time for sure.

 

I guess the TPG getting the grade wrong is VERY easy to do. Upon 2nd look, i dont like it in a 65 holder. Not just because of the MM either