I need your help determining which mint mark this is on 1889 Morgan!

I bought this Morgans that has a partial mint mark and to me, it looks like an "S" or maybe an "O". Can you help? Thank y'all for your help!

 

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A tough one for sure. What did you buy it advertised as...O or S...?

 

My opinion, for what it is worth, an "S".

 

Looks like an R, for Rochester, NY?

 

It looks like a 'scuff' in the mm area - or, possibly it's an S mint,
with damage at that point.

A photo half-way between the full first rev. photo and the bottom two close-ups
might provide more visual info for us.

 

Possibly an S

 

Yes, it is tough. I'm seeing both a top serif for a possible S and a vertical imprint that might be for an O. Got a feeling on this that it's an O unless more pics can show different.

 

Looks more O-ish to me... with a horizontal marking above.

Or maybe it's not a mint mark at all (?)

 

...an R for Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

 

This is what I see. Allow me to send more pictures. Thanks, everyone for your Feedback! As for the writing on the 2X2...it didn't have any MM on the 2X2. I think the seller didn't use a microscope to see it. But I saw it with a loop before I purchased it. feedback

 

Mint marks are not incuse

 

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it was a screw-up by someone trying to remove the S to replace it with a CC.

 

Here are a couple of examples of "S" that I have on other coins...large and small

 

sort of agree with Cmp9ball... It looks like someone was trying to affix a CC to the coin, but it failed.

 

Any way I look at it, I don't see it as a Mintmark considering the lack of wear on the rest of the coin in comparison. the mm should NOT be that faint imho, so I don't know if it's was P or a S or an O, but it's not natural in my opinion whatever it is and likely qualified and a details coin, also in my opinion, just because of the shenanigans in the mintmark location. the strike itself suggests an S, but the mintmark is all kinds of funky......

Should be able to identify it by die marriage and possibly by VAM with enough time and a magnifier and going theorugh the dates and mintmarks, but I'd probably start with P first. might just be odd damage and not a mintmark at all.

theres so much research on Morgan dollars at this point of die pairings and VAMS likely it should be able to be identified as to what it is that way, with enough time and effort.
From added mintmarks, to embossed mintmarks, to machining two coins together to create a magician coin version of an 1889CC with a 1889P obverse and a 1883CC or 84CC reverse, there's all kinds of monkey business with morgan dollars.
if you can't identify the dies, it's either a rare new discovery or it's altered/counterfeit.

Start with weight, inspect the edges for tampering with the reeding below where the "mint mark" is located, then try to identify the obverse or reverse and go from there until it's nailed down.
http://ec2-13-58-222-16.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/wiki/1889-P_VAMs
http://vamworld.com/wiki/1889-S_VAMs
http://ec2-13-58-222-16.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/wiki/1889-O_VAMs
http://ec2-13-58-222-16.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/wiki/1889-CC_VAMs

 

Not a mint mark.

 

I have to go with @cpm9ball's assessment. Just way too strange to have the mint mark with damage and none to the rest of the coin.

 

John, thank you for taking the time to respond in detail! I will definitely check out all the links that you have provided here. I want to also thank everyone that has responded and I hope everyone will have a wonderful holiday season! I collected a bunch of these 50 years ago when I started this hobby, but when I went into the military, my mother fell into hard times and she sold them all.

So I am starting over. Recently I have gotten interested in VAM’s and it really made me enjoy the complexities of this coin.

thanks everyone again!