GTG: 1886 Morgan Dollar Guess The Grade and VAM

MS65

 

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Here is the reveal... Most of you guys nailed it with the MS-64 grade. In my opinion it's an easy all day long green bean 64A with very nice frosty cartwheel luster on both sides. @messydesk nailed the VAM with his VAM-4 guess and the grade. Thank you all for playing.

 

Not quite a rattler but close enough. That coin looks real nice in most likely it's original holder.

 

That's a 64 that I would be happy having purchased.

 

That is an ultra-premium 64. Easily 64+, and it has a good shot at 65 if you were to resubmit (granted, its a common date so not worth it).

(For what it's worth - my guess would have been a 65).

 

You are echoing my feelings on it. It's not worth a resubmission to get an extra point. The reason I buy these kinds of coins, is that in the future, when my children go to sell their inheritance, it will be very easy to liquidate. That is another reason why I send a lot of my stuff to CAC. So later on, they can't be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous dealer trying to say that the coins in the holder are not very good for the grade.

 

Again, probably not actually worth sending to CAC - but would easily get the sticker, I think.

And I think your reasoning is quite sound as to your purchase philosophy.

 

Way late to this party, but FWIW, I'd have said 64. Reverse is great, but the hits on the cheeks held it back IMO.

 

I think the cheek looks much worse in the images than they do in hand. Honestly it looks more like it was pressed against the canvas bag and had minor breaks in the frost. There really aren't any contact marks from another coin. They are extremely superficial and are amplified in the images.

 

My appreciation of this coin has just jumped significantly. I've discovered it's actually a nice early die state VAM-4a. The cheek and neck show the die rust spots and has some significant die scratches across Liberty's cheek almost like a bear claw scratch. There is also some rust spots not mentioned on the VAM page in front of her eye near the bridge of her nose. The die crack at the date does not exist yet.

 

Here are some high detail shots of the cheek, nose and neck. You can really see the texture of the metal. The die was definitely rusty and had been worked prior to first use. @messydesk, I would love your input if any on this.

 

It appears that the image software in the uploads, resizes the images. They are only approximately 50% of the resolution I uploaded.

 

The die polish in these images is incredible. I'm not sure I've seen such polish in the hair like that before.

 

I love the look of die polish lines, which is one of the reasons I was so attracted to it to begin with. It's not just another typical smooth textured Morgan.

 

Neat die polishing lines on the portrait, for sure. Crisp die polishing lines are one sign of an early die state. 1886 dies were often used too long and detail becomes mushy and die polishing lines disappear. (Aside: I've started adding introductory paragraphs at the top of each date page on VAMWorld that touch on this, and 1886 is one I've done.) You'll usually see them in the spaces between the hair, but not as much on the face. Of course, they're more protected from being banged around in the hair recesses. There are a few specific hair recesses that have nicknames so that we can communicate where things are. There is the "D-shaped void", straight down from the ear and about 1/3 the way to the second 8, which is big enough to show a handful of scratches in a pattern that be matched, if necessary. The other is the "bear claw." If you draw a straight line from the top of the 6 to the bottom of the 2nd U in PLURIBUS, it's the "hairy paw" shaped end of a curl of hair about 1/5 the way from the 6 to the U, surrounded by lots of space to collect die scratches.