I'm curious...would the damage of the rim next to united cause this coin to be un-gradeable by pcgs or ngc?
HI moneylover. From the pictures It looks like the luster is gone and that the Morgan may have been cleaned in the past. That and the rim damage makes me think that it might not fair so well with the TGC. The 1880 coins were made with the 1879 reverse so it could be die damage I guess. The grade I would say is AU-58 cleaned. Any Morgan is a great Morgan and remember this is JMO.
I agree that it looks like the coin has been harshly cleaned and that alone would keep it out of a regular slab. As for the rim - that looks more like a strike through error than damage and if it is then that would not keep it from being graded.
For problem coins, PCGS would use "Genuine" on the insert; NGC would use (for example) "AU Details" - "Improperly Cleaned". Are these images scans or photos? Chris
The coin appears to have been worked. Either it was hairlined and the burned from a dip, or polished then dipped. The luster, or lack thereof, is the tell (to my eye). The way the coin is lit does tend to overblow this effect, and I suspect the coin in hand is a bit better, but that doesn't change my assessment. The rim issue appears as a strikethrough, and an odd one at that. I can't recall seeing something quite like that before. I'd love to see an extreme closeup of it. It could also be a stamp or hit of some kind that's been worked, but the dentils appear pristine inside of the hit and as G says, the edges appear sharp, which makes me say strikethrough. All of the above is IMO, of course.
First, thanks for all the input and opinions they are much appreciated and sorry for the delay of my response to some of the comments. The situation with this coin is this: A friend of mine saw the coin online and thought it looked pretty good and thus purchased it. The first thing i saw was the ding or what i thought was a ding on the rim, so i copied and pasted the images here to get feedback. After reading comments i sent him here to read some of the concerns. The coin is slabbed, but not by a top tier grading company. I'm fairly certain the coin will be shipped back to the seller, but if possible i will try to atleast get a few pictures of the rim "damage" to share here. Again, thanks for all the comments. Hunter
