I'm new to coins, so sorry if this is obvious. I recently received a 1891 Morgan Dollar CC, and I've been doing some research on the coin, because the eye kind of bugs me. And I've been very curious about it. Do the eyes differ from year to year, mint to mint, or are they all unique? Because I've been looking at pictures and non of the eyes look the same to me. Here are some of the different eyes I've seen. This one barely has the 2 lines on the left. This one has a huge line on the left and 2 semi deep lines on the right. The difference between those isn't very big. But I couldn't find one that is like mine. I can try and take a picture of it but i'll try and describe it. The left line is very deep like on the second coin, but barely has 1 line for an eye lid (the two lines on the right in the pictures above) and barely has a groove at the bottom. Just searching for about a minute I found 3 different eyes. Is this all just wear and tear or are they truly unique when made? Once again, I'm very new to coins and this just caught my interest. Sorry if it's a stupid question.
I would say it depends on how the coin was struck and possible wear I really don't see much differance in the two pics sorry JC
WELCOME to the forum. And NO, it is not a stupid question. To what lines are you refering? I see top and bottom lines, and you talk of left and right lines.........?
I don't really know any other way to explain it but try to draw it out. Bear with me on this one..... Well, I see the eye of the coin as a triangle like this(most similar to the second picture).. /\\ Not sure if you can see it like I do with that but that's the best I can do. If you can see how that is like the shape of the eye, this is the eye of the coin I have.... /\ I'm missing the second line on the right, aka the eye lid. I'm just wondering if that is the style based on which mint or year or if it could just be wear and tear. I'll just take a picture.... What's the best way to get a picture of the coin?
The dies were all prepared by the Philadelphia Mint. Mintmarks were added (on the reverse die for the Morgan Dollar) before being sent out to the branch Mints. The same hub was used to create the dies for all Mints (excepting normal replacement of working hubs). So, no. The dies for one Mint did not differ in design from another Mint. The differences you are seeing in Liberty's eye may be due to strike, wear, dirt buildup, etc.
