1880 S Morgan

Well, I went outside of my norm and purchased my very first Morgan Dollar today. I figured I would throw out some pics and see what everyone here thinks. Grade? Worth? Any input would be great. I look forward to hearing from all of you.

 

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I would probably put this coin in the AU range. This is the best struck date of the series so I would expect to see minimal flatness. I see what appears to be some wear.

 

due to the luster and general strength I would grade this in the low MS range, MS-62 to MS-63

 

I was thinking low MS range as well but I have a novice eye. Still a very nice looking coin. :thumb: May I ask what you paid?

 

Looks like a technical AU58.... But it could just as easily be called 61/62.

 

You might be right...but from what I have seen, many graders are quite harsh with the 1880-S because they are so commonly well struck and so easy to find in MS.

 

Seems I overpaid a bit. I paid $87.00. Oh well, ya win some, ya lose some. Like I said, this was my very first Morgan purchase, I guess I'll need to do a bit more research on them next time.

 

i agree for the date i think tpgs will be more aware of the flatter spots..ie. the breast feathers and over the ear. i never see 80-s dollars that heve weak strikes. im gonna have to sayau58 if submitted to pcgs or ngc. anacs may slide into a ms slab but i want to say 58.

 

also nice coin to grab at a low price. that year and mint mark make gorgeous lustrous coins

 

vdb... it prob wont be the last bad buy. ...but with these buys you will learn the most.its tough in the au-ms range especially when so much luster is there. just enjoy the coin maybe look for varieties on vamworld.com and familiarize what a ms coin will look like for next time.

 

That is because they almost don't exist. 1880-S is widely considered to be the best struck date in the series...followed by 1881-S. It's wonderful because they are an ultra common wonderfully struck high grade example of a beautiful coin...and even better they are from a branch mint.

 

With all those hits on both sides, AU at best.

Common Morgan, with 8,900,000 struck in San Francisco that year, I wouldn't go higher than $35 on it myself.

 

Hmmmm, tough crowd. I was gonna say ms63 all day long.

 

Ms 61

 

Looks like everyone is around the same consensus on Grade. Question...the blotching on the date, I am assuming that is caused from grease on the die? And if that is the case, would it be safe to say it's a DMPL, or just MS? If it is grease then that rules out proof right? Just trying to figure out the Morgan grading.

 

$87 low price? That's about $50 more than I would have paid for it.

Nice coin, just be happy with it, no matter what you paid for it.

 

It's a learning process that takes a long time. Heck, I still overpay sometimes too.

 

So I started reading a little more on VAM's. To me, it appears that the date falls closely to VAM-70(double-date)...although if you look, there is clear doubling directly below the date as well. I'm curious, does this affect how much it's worth? Thanks in advance.

 

what i was saying is that it would have been a nice coin at a cheap price