A question about Grading Morgans

perro

The grading of Morgans completely confuses me (and coins in general). I've seen what appeared to be MS60-62's turn out to be AU's, and vice versa. The ugly coin (even PCGS & NGC) has scratches, and apparent flaws is an MS63 (like one I own), and the nice coin...You know.

My question pertains to Morgans specifically: What are they looking for when they grade a Morgan? I've been way too wrong too many times. What are the "key" things they are looking for? Obviously, a big slash or gouge or deep rim ding are clear indicators for a low grading, but what are the more subtle, yet critical things they are looking for?

SDCollector

perro,

This may help - How to Grade U.S. Coins

coinguy1

Perro, it sounds like you might be missing the rub/wear on the lightly circulated examples. Such coins might be free of the larger bag-marks, scratches and abrasions which are often easier to detect.

Light wear usually shows up on the high points as a different color from the rest of the coin - often it is a grey or whitish color on a silver coin such as a Morgan dollar. Look at Liberty's cheek and hair on the obverse and on the eagle's breast feathers on the reverse. You might also check for disturbed/impeded luster and hairlines in the fields that surround the major design portrait on each side.

Be sure to tilt and slowly rotate the coin under a good light source so that the light bounces off of all areas at different angles. Hold the coin upside down and sideways, too, in order to get a different perspective - sometimes you see things that way which you otherwise wont.

Good luck and feel free to PM me with any questions.

lava

I would suggest you go to Heritage's archives and look at graded morgans up close. Looking at enough coins should enable you to get pretty close to the correct grade. Grade and eye appeal, however, are not necessarily in sync with one another. I frequently see au58s that have the eye appeal of an ms64 (those are typically in PCGS or ANACS holders). I also see ms62s that are hard to look at without grimacing. Maybe the toughest distinction is that between a 61 and 62 -- not a clear distinction. The second toughest distinction is probably between a 61 and 60.

Well, good luck.

Dog97

Most of the time on Morgs the 60-62 grade means that the coin is lackluster, weakly struck or damaged or a combination of problems. Usually the damage is a small mark that doesn't look very distracting but if you look closer you can see that is is a deep gouge or hit that has dug pretty deep into the coin and not just a shallow tick or bag mark.

Wolf359

As Dog said, luster! One way is to put together a small set of inexpensive certified coins; EF45, AU50, AU58, MS62, etc. Compare new coins against the set. Eureka!