Is the pitting on this coin PMD or due to counterfeit?

This worn coin has pitting heavily concentrated in the same areas on the observe and reverse. I know sometimes it can be PMD but I was hoping for more experienced eyes to give some input.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1890-CC-Silver-Carson-City-Morgan-Dollar/284120683120?hash=item4226e99270:g:LxAAAOSwAjVf3lta

What yall think?

 

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I'm not saying this coin's a fake, but whenever I see pitting like that on a Morgan, that's the first thing I consider. The seller has a good reputation so probably not.

 

The seller may have a good reputation, but all of their other coins for sale are either slabbed or in OGP. The only 2 that aren't are 2 Morgans, and they both look suspicious to me. I'd pass.

 

My vote would be counterfeit. I would pass on that one. The other surfaces don't look right, and it has the classic "Chinese toning" around the letters.

One of their tricks is to damage a piece. It makes you think, "With these problems, it must be good. Why would a counterfeiter copy something like this?" The answer is they get $90+ for less than a dollar's worth of scrap metal. I doubt that is piece contains any silver.

As for the dealer, it could be an honest mistake. Dealers buy whole collections, and given the number of counterfeits that around these days, some of them end up in those accumulations. It's one of the factors that makes buying circulated silver dollars without a careful examination of each piece, risky.

 

I'll post the same reply I wrote over on the CU forum (starting with a tabulation of the opinion of other replies to the thread!)
4 votes for fake, 3 for gen. damaged, 1 needs vomit bucket. Without larger images I can't say I'm 100%sure it's fake, maybe about 90%. Looking at the pits, especially on the rev, I see some of them have a tiny blob of metal in the center, which for me is a telltale sign of a transfer die forgery from a poorly made die. My 10% uncertainty is because the photos aren't quite big enough for me to be totally sure. I don't know the Morgan series well enough to judge the MM or other features that might be unique to this issue.

 

CC=Considerable Caution