1899-O Morgan is this a Micro O?

yeah, bunch of sloppy drunks down there. I find those weakly struck O Morgans very unappealing. I practiced great patience with all my O Morgans until I found a nicely struck example.

 

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It varies greatly by year. For example, 1892 are terrible. Well struck examples are almost unheard of. 1899 was actually one of the better and more consistently struck years.

 

Actually, there is a curious phenomenon with New Orleans strikes. Often, one will get a nicely struck obverse, that is average to above average in quality. Then, when one turns the coin over, the response is “yuck.” A solid mid to high grade o mint Morgan can have an awful looking reverse, with denuded breast feathers, fuzzy wing tips, and faint, gutless looking eagle talons. It must have been in the press alignment, where the obverse of the planchet got hit decently by the die, but the reverse did not get decent pressure from the die. One ends up with disappointing looking coins—attractive obverse, with details, and a reverse that is, well, fugly. This happens often, so that with gem grade o mint Morgans, there is a premium for a really attractive coin in good grade. TPGs are aware of this, and the market sees a lot of “net graded” or obverse weighted examples. For instance, a 65 obverse, and a 63 reverse =64.

 

Are those labeled as "Net MS64" or simply "MS64"?

 

They don’t advertise that they net grade, as grading is normally a weighted average between obverse and reverse, with some more weight to the obverse. It is just graded Ms 64.

 

At what point do you expect to see a split grade instead of a net grade? If the reverse has cabinet wear to the VF30 level & the obverse is MS64PL, would it be more reasonable to see a split grade instead of net?

 

I have never seen a split grade. A coin like you describe would probably not straight grade, and would come out as details—damaged, with such an extreme discrepancy between the two sides.

 

The think the original anacs would give a separate grade for the reverse and for the obverse.

 

I think split grades are still fairly common for early American coppers due to the coin cabinet friction effect on so many of them. A G/VF is not uncommon.

 

GeorgeM, posted: "I do see that the micro o is scarce in high grades. However, this seems smaller than the standard mint mark, on par with the half dollar mintmark from that era. What diagnostics do you use to distinguish the two?

Size

 

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