1896-O Morgan

Hi there please check this http://cgi.ebay.com.my/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350183952177

What do u guys think the think coin would fetch ?
It looks AU-58 upwards ! Its a brilliant coin I didnt have money to chase more than 100 USD , can anyone please advise ? Was it worth the bid ?

 

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seller is a ripoff artist.
overexposed angled pics hide problems.
run away.

 

How can we we say from these rip off's and camera techniques ?

 

Consider yourself lucky you ran out of cash when you did.

From the looks of the photo it has obvious touchups. Not to mention the poor quality of photo. It is hard to tell from these photos but my guess would be XF-40 at best, but that is assuming he didn't really touch up the photos.

 

That was a lot of money for a cleaned very common coin.
Guy~

 

Ain't that the truth.

 

How did u spot it was a modified pic ? I mean wat are the caveats ?
The seller has outstanding feedbacks too . I mean its getting tough to say the real from the make up . Please help me

 

Silver coins are not white. Especially AU silver coins. The coin should appear greyish color in the photo with white highlights where luster is present. In addition, worn spots on the coin should appear dark. Taking photos at an angle can drastically change the appearance and size of surface marks. By cropping the photo and resizing, it is easy to make the coin round again, but the marks are still less pronounced.

When Mike says the photo is overexposed, he is talking about too much light and too much contrast. I don't have any AU coins to show you so I will use a 1901-O Morgan Dollar NGC MS65. I will crank up the brightness and contrast using photoshop to create the illusion of an MS66 or MS67 coin. Most will recognize the photo for what it is, but remember, a seller who does this only needs to fool 2 people to make a lot of money.



Notice that the surfaces of the coin look much cleaner. The marks that are still present are much less noticeable. Also notice that the entire coin is white (overexposed). This is hiding the actual appearance of the surface of the coin. Also notice that any detectable luster has disappeared into the added light.

 

THis guy sells junk - seen the stuff first hand and sent it back

 

Ok , cant complain when you have someone say it from real experience . It puzzles me that this guy is a power seller with such high feedbacks ! Lehigh96 , thanks for the detailed explanation . I can see that he has done a photoshop on it , but the details of the coins look very good - the engravings are very PROMINENT- if we look at your example though the second picture looks white and more brighter , the engravings are more CLEAR in the first coin . This is what make me confused. Hope I make sense to you .

 

Great demonstration and explanation by Lehigh, anyone who buys coins on the internet should read this thread!

 

That isn't even an AU! besides all the other stuff people say!

Although it looks like the edited the picture to make it very bright.

Here's just the obverse of one in the same grade.

 

That ebay coin looks to be a VF just from the marks and wear the obvious overexposure is trying to cover up.

 

How about this ? Is this MS ? The seller has not mentioned anything about this coin . Please tell me ur grading of the same
Bidding at 25 USD , any thoughts ?

Thanks

 

There's no breast feathers & quite a bit of wear on the hair. It's about the same grade as the 1st ebay coin you mentioned.

 

A lot of 1 and 2 feedback bidders at the top range....always makes me suspicious of shills. Apology if someone here was a bidder.

Jim

 

It's funny that you posted this link when you did. I've been "watching" a lot of the morgan auctions on eBay to kind of see how they progress, and had several of this auctioner's items on my watch list. I didn't end up buying any of his.

I had the rather generic thought of 'bright coin shot on a black backdrop, pleasing to the eye, wondering if it's not really as good as it seems', but I didn't know any of the specifics.

My eye definitely isn't trained to notice a lot of this stuff, but I'm trying to pay more attention to highly raised areas that are the first to wear (seems like the Eagle's chest is the first to go on a lot of these morgan dollars).

This thread's really informative, thanks guys.

 

Sadly that is the risk of any hobby especially this one.

 

That coin is polished. Don't take this the wrong way, but perhaps you should consider buying either NGC or PCGS slabbed mint state Morgans until you are better able to judge for yourself. The two coins you have shown interest in are two obvious problem coins from shady sellers.

 

I'm not sure it is polished but the photo isn't good enough to lay out MS67 dollars for.

Ruben