Hi guys, I am new to the hobby and have been collecting up morgans, like alot of newcomers i dont care about rarity right now but like to get high grade coins cheap so i can learn along with filling in the easy holes in my collection. The question is what is "wear" ? I have coins that grade high but there seems to be "wear" on the high points. The red book says no trace of wear for coins in the MS range.. I would consider "wear" to be the shiny part when you urn the coin in the light, the part under 10X that is definately worn...am I correct???? If thats the case then all my MS morgans are actualy AU Is there some kind of difference between "wear" from circulation and that which could occur from being in bag or something?? Please help! Very confused on this topic!
if you want to certify your morgan, send them directly to NGC, the best place with ANACS so.... and don't worry about your grade, because like you said, right now, is to have fun with your morgan, without thinking about the rarity coins!!!!!! see you soon
MorganMan - One thing you need to always keep in mind - there is no free lunch in numismatics. In other words, if it's cheap it's probably not high grade. Of course that could depend on what you call high grade - or cheap for that matter. But let me make a suggestion. Instead of buying coins - buy books. I would suggest you start out with the ANA Grading Standards for United States Coins. That will help teach you how to recognize wear on a coin. It will also save you a great deal of money. Learning to recognize wear on a coin depends greatly on what the coin is. Copper, gold, silver, nickel - wear looks different on all of them. But in simplest terms wear on a nearly uncirculated coin will appear as a dull spot in the luster.
