I have been trying to rebuild my peace collection. It's not nearly as easy as it was 5 years ago. I bought a duplicate today. Mainly for the surfaces, combo'd with the grade. It reminds me of a rusted die on the obv. There is a ton going on in hand. I might have to ask you all next about a 93CC. Researching it tonight.
"It's a beaut, Clark!" Looks like it's very lustrous and has pretty strong strike. To your point about the surfaces, I can't quite make out from the photo if it's got that rusted-overused-die surface or the brand-new-handmade-die surface; I'm guessing the latter based on how bright and crisp it appears. In my limited experience, with rusted dies, the letters/numbers become very fuzzy and difficult to make out. Maybe that's what we're seeing with the U in TRUST, but without my trusted loupe, I'm uncertain. On the reverse, minimal contact/bag marks. I'm torn between MS63 (because of a few noticeable, "distracting" contact marks) and MS65 (because of the fresh off the presses surfaces) so I'll split the difference and I guess MS64. Definitely leaning toward MS64+/MS65 though.. As a side note, I'm a big fan of the original surfaces on old Morgan/Peace dollars. The handmade nature of the clay models later transposed to the dies added a wonderful element to the coins. I think this is the key missing feature from the 2021 and 2023 restrikes; they were digitally modeled resulting in perfect, flat, boring surfaces. Still pretty, but certainly lacking compared to their early 20th century counterparts.
The dies are a little bumpy but I’m loving her. I’m at MS65 but they sometimes 64 these for the die state, although I don’t think they should. At any rate, that’s one fine-looking lady.
I step in at 65 because of reverse "very pretty" and everyone loves a pretty lady! Almost like the reverse die was collared and obverse was the pressure die. Lol
Alright here is the grade. I did find the VAM I believe. It is a rusted and pitted die on the obverse. Which is an R-5 1925-P VAM-1AP - VAMWorld (ec2-13-58-222-16.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com) As far as the grade. This is a very lustrous coin and nearly contact free except for the bag marks on the neck. There are a few others but not noticed unless under magnification. I agree with the MS66 on this one.
This is why I always include slab photos when I sell coins. The closeups can often make small marks look more prominent than they actually are. After seeing the slab photo of this Peace Dollar, I have no problem with the MS66 grade, though I think this coin is on the 65-66 range, and would probably not earn a CAC sticker.
Agreed, if I had not gotten it for around Grey sheet I probably wouldn't have bought it. The rusted obv die was what attracted me to the coin.
