When the breast feathers are not real sharp looking, does that mean an automatic AU? If everything else looks great and the breast feathers are not as sharp as others could it grade higher
A coin dealer I knew used to call those kinds of Morgans "flashers". He would sell them at AU prices.
Exactly. The Morgan Dollar had a very wide range of strike quality. The key is to look at the luster, not the details. If the high points have luster (breast feathers, hair over ear)...then they are uncirculated. O dollars have a reputation for having a bad strike but it's not always true. See the link in my signature about that.