Hey guys, The only person in my extended family who cares about coin collecting is my uncle but he lives in Nevada whereas I live in California so I don’t see him much. However he came down to see us so we could exchange gifts and I just wanted to share. I got a 1921 P, 1921 S and 1921 D Morgan Dollar all in MS-63. The only difference is for some reason one of the PCGS holders is green. I’m guessing that means it’s an older holder. Anyway I just wanted to share since I love Morgan Dollars and I know many other people do too.
Sweet! Gotta love the old PCGS green holders. I also got a 1921 Morgan for Christmas this year although it's not in MS like yours.
Nice! Yours has pretty toning too. Do you happen to know if the green one I have is one of the ones from back when they were more strict with their grading? I was talking to a coin dealer once and he had coins in old holders and he sent some back in and some went from 63 in the old holder to 64 in the new holder.
It's a gen 2.2 holder, meaning it was slabbed between Dec 1989-Jan'y 1990. So there is a considerable chance that it is wrongly graded in today's standards. Would you post closer pics of the coin?
Good amount of light, not too close or far. Also try to get the pic focused on the coin. (I'm sure you've seen how many people post blurred out coins here) Iphone XS has a pretty good camera so it shouldn't be too hard.
Here are the best pics I could take. I tried to highlight any imperfections (instead of hiding them as many do when selling online) as best as possible. In particular the breast of the eagle on the reverse. It looks like the feathers on the breast are either weak struck or somewhat worn. Oh and the gash in Liberty’s neck. Other than that though the luster is good and the bag marks are minimal.
P.S. Is that picture okay? Or is there something I did wrong? I really want to learn to take good accurate photos of coins. Not “good” in the sense of making bad coins look better but in taking pictures that are accurate so a low grade coin looks low grade and beautiful coin looks beautiful.
The pics look good so far all you need is practice. The coin has some marks on the cheek and a bagmark on the neck, that's why the grader gave it a 63. I like the die cracks on the reverse too. When it comes to picturing coins it mostly depends on the lighting. Some people use a LED wheel, I use two gooseneck lamps to take mine (two lighting sources can help greatly). Once you have a good lighting source it's really about finding the best position/distance of the lights on the coin.
So you don’t think it’s overgraded from back in the old days? I’ve been trying to compare all 3 of them to each other since they’re all 1921 MS-63 but with just different Mint marks. You noticed the die crack too? I saw it immediately when I looked at it with a loupe but I wasn’t 100% sure so I didn’t say anything in case it wasn’t a die crack.
I think the grade is actually pretty fair. When grading Morgans the obverse is really what matters and MS grades are usually determined by the amount/severity of hits that are on the cheek. Also yes that is a die crack. I don't see them that big on Morgan dollars very much, it's pretty cool.
Ah ok fair enough. I guess mine is one of the minority that were graded leniently for the time. Do you think it would get a CAC sticker indicating high end 63? To be honest though one of my other MS-63 Morgan Dollars (I think the 1921-D) looks SO much better than the other two. Can I show you it? If you look up close it has way more luster, way less bag marks, an awesome light cartwheel around the edges and just a good eye appeal. That one I feel 95% sure is MS64 at the least and potentially 64+.
Here are the pics. Wish I could’ve sent via PM but oh well. I know there are some light scratches but even MS 67+ Morgans have some blemishes and gentle scratches. Just remember the extreme zoom makes little things look huge. A lot of stuff I can’t even see with my naked eye.
