I have a 1878 cc morgan silver dollar that was very lightly cleaned by a previous owner (I think). This coin is extremely beautiful but is lacking the mint luster. The detail is amazing, better than most ms 65/66 I have seen. No real noticable marks except a very slight rim ding on the tip of the right wing on the reverse. You really have to look to notice it. What kind of negative effect will rhe lack of mint luster have? will it knock it down to a AU or what? I am fairly new to collecting so I don't know all of the in's and out's. Thanks
Howdy ghostrider - Welcome to the Forum !! This one is kinda tough to call. I agree with you, if that coin had its luster it would be a 65 - 66 easy. But without the luster - aint gonna happen. This post kinda goes along with some other comments I made recently in another thread regarding grading. A coins grade is made up of several factors - it's the sum total of all factors considered. And the lack of one factor can easily be made up for by the excellence of the others. That's what you have with this coin. The only thing lacking with this coin is luster and as a result some eye appeal. But it is nearly mark free and has an excellent strike. Somebody destroyed the luster by over-dipping the coin. But even with the luster gone the coin still grades MS as the other facots make up for it. I would say that if you submitted that coin to NGC or PCGS it would grade MS63 - and I would not be surprised to see MS64. Others may disagree - but that is my opinion.
Thanks for the warm welcome!! I pretty much knew that the overdipping would hurt the overall value but for everything else, this is a real beauty. Many people have the opinion that if a coin is cleaned it looses all value, but in some cases I believe that cleaning brings out the real beauty of a coin. Of course this is just my opinion. Thanks for taking a look!!!
