I bought these 1881-S Morgans recently. Sent them today to PCGS. How do you think they will be rated?
Good luck with your submission. The 81 S is known for oveall quality: Great strikes, excellent luster and many with minimal contact marks. The pictures are out of focus and hard to judge. The contrast on the cheeks of coins 2-5 look odd in your pictures. Almost like they were polished. I'm not saying that's the case. Without better pics, it's hard to judge the coins.
Photos are what are making me go so low.but the reverse look very nice. I'm hoping it will grade higher than my guess.
Thanks, all, for the comments. I'm aware the pictures were not the best. Am working on a better set-up to photograph coins. Have a good Nikon camera and a barrel extension. Just need some type of tripod to hold the camera still. These coins actually look better under a magnifier than a couple of graded MS64 Morgans I own. I'm hoping for a good grade on all of them. I sent in 8 of 20 that I bought; if those 8 grade out well, I'll send in the other 12. As always, the participants on this site offer good advice, for the most part, and I appreciate the feedback.
What you need is a copy stand, not a tripod. Can't grade from your images, but I'm inclined to say you'll be disappointed. Typically this date comes quite nice and you'll see a frosty cheek, so even in poor pictures like this, the cheek doesn't have that faded, dark look yours have.
They are garden variety MS 63 and 64 Morgan's. No proof like to my eye, as those dates are graded very tightly in terms of aPL designation.
Well, the results are back from PCGS. I bought a roll of 20 that were listed as CH/GEM BU. Sent the best 8 to PCGS for grading. Two came back MS62; one AU58; one AU52; four genuine, cleaned. I contacted the seller and questioned his grading, asking for a refund. To his credit, he agreed. I returned the coins and received a full refund today. Lesson learned.
I am glad you got to get a satisfactory solution. Good learning experience from Pcgs they don't usually agree with you.
Glad the seller held up his end of the bargain, and thank you for updating. I had a feeling you'd get a few cleaned coins there. Now you know what they look like... lesson learned, never trust eBay sellers, and know what a cleaned coin looks like.
My fault for not asking for pics of each coin. He agreed a little too quickly to rebate the $. Guess he doesn't want the bad grade on the transaction.
I agree! I was thinking exactly the words you describe. Indeed you're right as all these coins have excellent strikes.
AU-52? Did you mean AU-53? Sounds to me if the best one you got back was MS-62 chances are all were cleaned at some point but some were properly cleaned and many were improperly cleaned as the Details grade comes into play. Did your seller pay you too for the PCGS encapsulation cost? If not it's as if you gave a freebie. I'd likely have accepted a return this way too as a graded coin is more valuable.
You are right, AU-53. Don't make me feel bad about getting my money back. It could have been much worse. I had a new membership with PCGS which gave me 8 gradings free. So I'm only out a few dollars for shipping. I'm relieved to come out that well.
