Hey guys, just curious about this, I picked up this Morgan because the mirrors where a lot deeper than most PL's I've seen. I know the line between PL DPL DMPL is pretty thin and pretty much up to whoever is grading it. Ive even seen some PL coins not get the go ahead. Anyways, what do you guys think?
I think the face part might be way more frosted white with mirror fields to be DMPL. wait for more opinions....
This is true. However, one must also keep in mind that the early S mint Morgans are an exception to the rule when it comes to grading them, and also when assigning the special designations like PL and DMPL. The rules, the criteria used to determine if the coin is worthy or not, are more strict than they are for any other coins. In other words, you could look at another coin, even another Morgan of different date same mint, or different mint any date, and it has the DMPL designation; and you compare that coin to your coin and see no difference - but yet your coin is only PL and the other is DMPL. The more strict criteria for your coin is why the difference exist. If you want to truly understand, compare your coin to other Morgans of the same date/mint that have the DMPL designation. It should be quite easy to see the difference.
I'm not so sure. Notice how the cameo on your image darkens completely across the lower part of the coin, including her neck and hair, but on mine, the bold, black letters stop across her neck and hair. Maybe it would be different if it were not in the slab. I don't know. Chris
nicely said, I honestly didn't know that about the earlier S Morgans. I will keep that in mind when purchasing others in the future. I picked this one up because of that fact that it looked DMPL and it was at a very affordable price. I will take it up to the expo this winter too see.
Possibly just the angle and the slab, heres another pic I took. Nice Cameo frosty face and intense mirrors.
I agree that this is true, but if we're going to have grading standards, shouldn't they be standard? Just because there seem to be a lot of 1881-S Morgans with very shiny fields, it doesn't make sense to me that it should be harder for them to be labeled PL or DMPL than other dates. It's worse than the TPGs calling AU coins UNC. In that case, they're saying a nice AU is worth "UNC money." But why should one variety with a particular level of "proofiness" be called PL and a different one not? I guess the TPGs are trying to generate business by grading scarcer dates easier.
The 80-S is hardly scarce with a mintage of 8.9 million, mostly well-struck specimens that came from the Treasury releases of the 60's. Chris Corrected the date.....Typo error.....Not a mint error though.
Yes. Most, consider the cutoff date to be '82 for coins that are included in the group graded by tougher standards. '83 and on are graded as other coins are.