GTG - 1881-S Morgan Dollar

Can you guess the grade on this 1881-S Morgan Dollar?

Is it a semi-cameo (if that's [un]officially a thing)?

The "S" MM is a bit peculiar, too.

There's something going on with it, I'm not sure what it is.

Could it be an S/S RPM variety?

There's extra "cud" or device within the top loop, to the left of the top serif.

I don't believe that extra device is a result of a hit, as I see the "S" is largely intact.

I took a pic of that MM, but not with the best photography skills...

I can post a better one with my USB microscope if it'll help.

(But for now, please click to zoom).

Thanks in advance!

 

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Im saying MS-64. It does look like a RPM, but i would need a clearer picture of the mintmark and bigger pics of the coin to determine the VAM

 

I'm at MS63 and it looks like VAM-14 S/S far left. (or at least that rev. die) Or...VAM-5 reverse die.

 

I'd say 64. Hard to tell on the cameo contrast, it doesn't appear to be very strong, but many of this well-made date do show some degree of P/L or contrast.

 

there are likely not enough mirrors for proof like

 

Nice coin 63/64 and yes looks to be a rpm

 

62 maybe 63. These are graded with high quality in mind. I could see it in a 63 but a 62 wouldn't surprise me.

 

I have it as V10 - look inside the 8's.

 

Did you really just vam an 81s going further than the breast and right wing Dave

 

Yeah, that's why I posted the VAM-5 reverse die. It kinda looked like the VAM-10 obverse but I wasn't sure.

 

Never forget, we don't have anywhere near all the die pairings yet. Somebody who managed 10 Discoveries in one calendar year ought to know that.

But, yes, even if I already know exactly what it is I go over both faces. Learned that lesson years ago.

 

Even if it's a 1 and done attribution?? I have owned so many '21 D capped R that I know it IMMEDIATELY after flipping over the coin. I bet you have picked/owned/flipped quite a few capped R/pompadour T etc. etc. to know what I'm talking about

I agree w cascade, 63 @ best.... if the grader caught his wife in bed with Julio that week- I could see a 61/62

 

I'm at MS 63/64.

 

I tried to take a clear pic with the microscope, but these are the best I could do.

There looks to be a near-vertical "cud" that goes through the MM.

The serifs do look a little doubled.

Also, both sides of the Morgan dollar have an extremely strong cartwheel luster as if it came straight from the Mint.

I hope it helps a little more. Thanks.

 

Of course. There's always the possibility of an unknown die state, or a new die for the other face.

1878-P VAM-80 has the "killer" pickups on the obverse - doubling and lines in LIBERTY, a nice die chip on the cheek - which are obvious to the B1 Reverse student, and differentiate it from any other B1.

Until VAMs 85 and 86 were discovered using the same obverse....

 

1891 CC VAM-7 is the poster child to bypass the one & done mentality.

 

That one, too.

 

Well, when u put it to me like that.... I never thought of it that way, and I'm wondering if maybe I should've studied the un-interesting side of the coin more, in the past. It's been dually noted and will do in the future, thanks

 

Yup, one of my most famous discoveries, the 1879s vam 1B2, was a later die state of a previously known vam with a large gouge. I noticed that the entire obverse on mine was heavily polished in an attempt to remove the gouge. It almost looked like a cleaned coin but I knew better. The point is to question everything. The 91cc vam 7 spitting eagle is a great case study of this. For decades even the best of vammers just saw the "spit" and called it a vam 3. Then someone sent one to @messydesk and he did a double take on the date, he noticed it was a far date and started scratching his head then asked other vammers to check their vam3's and some noticed they too had the unusual far date vam 3 as well and thus the much more rare vam 7 spitting eagle was born.

 

There does look like there's a horizontal line beneath the S. Maybe they were trying to make a dollar sign. Lol.

I like the old girl at MS64. Certainly he degree of contact on the obverse makes MS63 plausible, but I always look at the side as a whole, too, and pay strict attention to how my eye moves through the side. Does it keep coming back to a mark, or marked area, or does it go through the side gracefully, focusing, when it does, mostly only on where the engraver put the detail, i.e., where he intended the eye to go to impart the feeling intended? On this obverse, the engraver's effort in controlling eye-movement is pretty much still intact, as I call it, and that's what cinches her for me at MS64.