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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cdcda, post: 52034, member: 941&quot;]Mint state coins are graded on their mint lustre, the quality of their strike, the state of surface preservation and their eye appeal. Let&#039;s take a look at each of these areas for this coin and how a grade on the Sheldon scale is assigned...</p><p><br /></p><p>Surface Preservation - the most important areas to examine on a Morgan dollar obverse are the face and date. In this case, the face has a decent number of contact marks from rubbing against other coins in a bag or roll, but no major detracting bag marks can be seen. There does appear to be one or two minor nicks on the cheek, but they are not overly obvious. The date area looks clean as well. Examing the fields of the coin there is a noticeable die crack to the left of the chin, and this is in this case a detracting factor (although a minor one). Other than that, there are precious few marks. The rim and the area around the legend and stars also look good.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the reverse the most important area is of course the eagle&#039;s breast and then the remainder of the eagle&#039;s body. In this case, although it is hard to tell from a photo, the eagle looks devoid of any detracting marks. There does appear to be a mark of some kind near the arrow points and it may be another die crack, but it is hard to tell from the photo.</p><p><br /></p><p>Aside from marks, we also need to look for hairlines, evidence of cleaning and/or handling, all of which seem to be absent in this coin. There are a few black spots on both the obverse and reverse but I am hoping these are not marks on the coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>Overall, on a scale of 1 to 5, the state of surface preservation for this Morgan Dollar would rate a 4.</p><p><br /></p><p>Lustrel - here we are judging how mint lustre for this coin, both obverse and reverse, stacks up against the known characteristics for the 1885-O. Although it it hard to tell from a photo, it looks to me like this coin is blast white with what I would expect to be a beautiful cartwheel and probably and a darn near mirror like reverse field. The only problem area is Liberty&#039;s cheak where we see breaks in the lustre from contact with other coins. Overall, comparing this to other 1885-O&#039;s I would assign the coin a 4 on a scale of 1 to 5.</p><p><br /></p><p>Strike - the 1885-O is not one of the weaker New Orleans dates (such as the 86, 87, and 88 New Orleans strikes) so we cannot consider this a strong strike for the date. We can however consider it just a bit about average. In looking at the quality of the strike on the Morgan Dollar, the key diagnostic areas are the hair above the ear and the eagle&#039;s breast. On a scale of 1 to 5, the strike is going to merit a 4 as well. Were this one of the weaker New Orleans dates, I would go a little higher.</p><p><br /></p><p>Eye-Appeal: Here we get real subjective and taking into account a variety of factors, assign the coin a grade on a scale of 1 to 5 based on most importantly - the absence of presence of toning and the balance of any toning. In this case, we are lucky in that the coin is blast white! Assigning a subjective grade to a toned coin is much more difficult and could easily be disputed amongst even expert graders. In this case, without seeing the coin in person (and realizing that is highly unlikely that a 5 would be assigned to a coin lacking any toning) I give this one yet another 4.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, how do I arrive at an MS64 designation from these numbers?</p><p><br /></p><p>1. We recognize that surface preservation is the most important factor in determing the grade so we weight the result by multiplying it by two. Therefore our 4 becomes an 8.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Next we add all of our numbers together - coming up with a total score of 20.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. Now we look at the ranges for the different mint state grades from 60 to 70:</p><p><br /></p><p>5 to 12.99: MS60</p><p>13 to 13.99: MS61</p><p>14 to 17.49: MS62</p><p>17.5 to 18.99: MS63</p><p>19 to 20.49: MS64</p><p>20.5 to 21.99: MS65</p><p>22 to 22.99: MS66</p><p>23 to 23.99: MS67</p><p>24 to 24.49: MS68</p><p>24.5 to 24.99: MS69</p><p>25: MS70</p><p><br /></p><p>So based on a review of the photo alone, this coin is assigned a grade of MS64. In person, it is possible that it may grade higher.</p><p><br /></p><p>For those interested in learning more about grading mint state coins using the method above, purchase a copy of How To Grade U.S. Coins by James Halperin. And, realize that this method is meant to hone ones skills and in some cases, to support a more subjective and immediate grade. In other words, when initially said the coin grades an MS64 I took all of these factors into account - I did not go through and compute them. Only herein, to explain the grading process and how one might arrive at the grade I assigned, did I show this computation.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hope this helps everyone.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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