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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Lehigh96, post: 419152, member: 15309&quot;]It is my opinion that questions such as these can best be answered with photos rather than words.&nbsp; I will post photos of two NGC MS64 Morgan Dollars (photos courtesy of Heritage).&nbsp; The first will have razor sharp strike, full luster, blazing eye appeal, and enough bag marks to possible warrant an MS63 (if your picky).&nbsp; The second will have flat luster impeded by toning, a weak strike, ugly as hell, and not a bag mark to be found.&nbsp; Literally, the second coin has the surfaces of an MS66 (at least).</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/LustrousMS64.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o59/ACPitBoss/FlatlusterWeakstrikeMS64.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The answer to your question is that they are all important with surface preservation being most important.&nbsp; From the photos you can see that if coin ones surfaces were better, the coin has the strike, luster, &amp; eye appeal to go all the way to the top.&nbsp; The second coin has tremendous surfaces, but lacks the other three elements of grading and is limited to an MS64 by those deficiencies.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Every aspect of grading can limit a coins grade.&nbsp; The most common limiting element is surface preservation.&nbsp; I would list strike and luster equal in this regard among grades over MS65.&nbsp; Eye appeal has the least effect on grade IMO because it is a product of the other three.&nbsp; Show me a remarkably preserved fully struck and lustrous coin and I bet it will be pretty.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Eye appeal for better of worse is the area where a coins grade can be bumped up instead of down.&nbsp; If the strike and luster are there, a coin with oustanding eye appeal (usually from toning) will often be market graded up one grade over it&#039;s technical grade.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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