Newbie question - Morgan Dollar MS grades

cary1952

Could someone please send me the link , or tell me how to get to the PCGS grading guide for Morgan Dollars? Thanks!

Wolf359

PCGS Grading Standards.

morgannut2

Sorry there's several links to grading guides but I can find them. Some kind soul will post today I'm 100% sure. Once you get an idea of what each grade looks like, the single most important thing you can do is see lots of coins; and the easiest place to do this is at a coin auction at a show. You will be amazed to discover that each Morgan date/mint mark combination is graded differently. So a MS-64 1879-CC may look a lot like a MS-65 1885-0 for example. Or an MS-65 1885-CC will have more marks than the 1885-O did. MS grades are partly a relative ranking WITHIN each Morgan date/mint mark. For a useful discription of luster, etc. characteristics by date I like Bowers new paperback that's called Morgan Silver Dollars (like $30) form www.anrcoins.com or by phone there. When you see a scale, examine the focal areas of the cheak and left obv. field to see one major grading point in addition to luster which you can only see in person. Hope this helps!

JxnBoy

Forum member "prooflike" has an excellent site with descriptions and a cool side-by-side comparison of mint state Morgans.

http://home1.gte.net/res05izg/index.htm


And welcome cary1952 to the board.

Heywood

I found this to be excellent

Grading guide

It has some excellent color plates that show the areas of primary wear by coin family.

morgannut2

Boy that's a great link for grading. His pictures look like his coins are "top 5% for the grade" so I'm thinking you might image two grades higher and two grades lower than MS-65 to get a good feel for starts. Great post JxnBoy, now I have to go back to prooflikes site!!

DrWho

the book offered by PCGS with a gold member sign up (grading and counterfeiting), can also be found in ebay auctions.