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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Hobo, post: 1239168, member: 11521&quot;]Think of a &#039;mark&#039; or a &#039;hit&#039; on a coin as a blemish. Something struck the coin and left a mark. It may have been another coin that hit the coin. When coins are struck they come out of the coin press and fall into a hopper. Other coins fall on top of those coins and cause marks. The coins are poured onto a conveyor (more coin-to-coin contact) and end up in a bag with other coins. The bags are tossed around as they are stored and delivered. Lots and lots of opportunity for coins to rub against and hit other coins and leave marks on other coins. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It sounds like your raw Morgan would grade MS-63 or maybe MS-62; certainly no higher than 63. (You said the raw coin has more marks than the slabbed MS-63.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Grading is a way to assign a numerical grade to describe a coin&#039;s condition. Slabbed coins are not free from marks. Far from it. Slabbed coins were raw before they were slabbed. Somebody decided to pay a TPG to authenticate and grade the coin so the TPG looks at the coin, makes sure it is authenticate (not counterfeit, not altered, etc.) and grades it. They then place the coin in a slab with an insert that identifies the coin and states its grade. </p><p><br /></p><p>Grading is much more complicated than this but generaly speaking (for uncirculated coins) the more marks on a coin the lower the grade. </p><p><br /></p><p>From the ANA Grading Standards:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards for United States Coins. (6th Edition)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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