MS 64 PL. Technical grade MS 63 with a toning point bump. Mixed opinion on PL...leaning toward PL based on photos. Nice coin.
I think it’s a technical 65PL that got either a color bump to 66PL or got submitted enough times to get into a 66PL slab. If it’s a 66PL slab I believe it to have been market graded.
I'm at 63PL. Only that scrape in the field in front of the forehead holds it back from a higher grade.
I too thought initially from the first photos it was a proof Morgan. The photo gives the look from the fields and the toning. To me it screamed proof. Then the eagle really resembled what you would see on a proof coin. The rim to me though didn’t really resemble proof rims. The bag marks in the field and the luster graze on the cheek is what made me believe it was not proof. Then the second set of photos showed more of that MS look style of luster with just proof like fields.
So I fully believe this was market graded, but I couldn’t resist such a nice coin. This coin graded MS-66 PL. In hand this coin is a stunner.
The grader must have had wisely in their thermos on the day they looked at this coin. It's nice but not a 66 PL.
MS-66 No way with the minor marks on the cheek and the bigger mark in the upper left obverse field. I was thinking MS-63+ PL or 64 PL. For me, an MS-66 coin is a piece that has hard to spot marks; not ones that jump out at you when you view the piece for the first time.
Nice coin. Very attractive. But 66? I don’t see it as a 66? 64PL, yeah. I guessed 63. But, I just don’t see it as a 66. Nice eye appeal, though.
I can only guess that the coin is way, way, nicer in hand that the picture represents. That scrape at 10:00, if it's as serious as it appears in the image, would preclude this coin from getting anything above a 64. I called it a 63 based on that. That's the risk of making judgment based on images, rather than seeing the coin in person.
Was it an 1881-S Morgan Dollar? If it was, they can grade those very conservatively because so many of them are very nice.
Is that a thin die crack along the top of “OF” and the right wingtip on the reverse? Neat if it is. Such a beautiful coin.