Keys or not, let's face it..."Real Men collect Morgans". Sure, you can collect other sets, but if you don't have a reasonable Morgan collection...your manhood is in question. :kewl:
Speaking of Morgans, after I buy my capped bust half and finish my half dollar set, I'm looking to get another Morgan. I'm considering the 81-S for it's "strict" standards in ms65. I was leaning towards PL but might just get a "regular". Any thoughts on PL vs a normal Morgan?
Well when comparing those pics, the PL 80 vs the normal 81... think I might shoot for the shiny PL lol.
Oh and on a related note, how do these Morgans get a PL quality about them? Obvilously they didn't have the tech or thought to mint this as proofs so what causes them to be so?
I think it is like the first 500 to a thousand coins minted each year are DMPL, then I think the next couple thousand are PL. Due to the polishing of the dies. I think this is how it goes
Ok. So the fresher the die causes this and as they wear out they coins become "normal" that seems to be rational.
SF mint had a process in place I believe that the SF mint had a process in place where the coins were stored away at the end of the workday & freshly polished for the next use. The freshly polished fields caused PL surfaces at the beginning of die use when the dies were next put in service. A Morgan expert can make a good guess at the mint mark just by viewing the obverse. The same expert might make a good guess at the date of a Morgan by viewing only the reverse. There are plenty of good books describing the Morgan series. I recommend the Breen Encyclopedia, the Van Allen books and the red-book on Morgans.
There's lots and lots of Morgan Proofs. As explained, PL and DMPL are the result of being struck with fresh dies. 'Bout all there is to it.
