Trying to get an idea and possibly a jumping off point to grade about 200 Morgans I just came across. Thanks so much.
I agree with Matt on this one... it doesn't look like quite right. Here's a photo grading guide you might be able to use as a starting point: http://coinauctionshelp.com/How_To_Grade_Morgan_Dollars.html
The lighting needs to be better, and it looks like the obverse lighting is different from the reverse lighting. You need to keep it consistent (including the sizing.) Chris
looks MS to me. can't tell about polishing from photos. the reverse has slight frosted look to eagle which polishing would take away I think. it's up in the air from those photos
Even worse if the fact that it's a 1883S which has some issues. Of course they wanted this coin to look MS just a 60 grade alone puts it at $500, 63 goes to $2K, $4500 for MS64 and the polishing to make it look proof or proof like knocks it out of the park at tens of thousands. Just what I see with the coin is how come the feathers in the eagle are crisp as all get out but the tails of the arrows look like just a mass of metal? The bottom serif on the S of pluribus shouldn't come up and touch middle curve of the S and the feet of the M in unum shouldn't be run together into the center like that. Plus all the E's on the coin look block like and too thick. Could just be spread from lots of wear. Polished and worn at least and just possibly even a fake IMO.
Thank you for all the responses. It's not a polished piece for sure. I'm a novice at taking pictures of these things so the lighting point and pretty much everything in dannics post are photo quality issues. Thank you jloring for that link it was exactly what I was looking for.
How are you sure it wasn't polished? It could have been before you received it, or before that person you got it from received it. It's been out there for over 125 years (unless it's a fake, like dannic possibly suggested).
