Received: 1897-S PCGS MS-64 Morgan Dollar -- Very Pleased-- Photos

Stuart

I invite you to please guess the grade on this new 1897-S Morgan Dollar that I purchased yesterday. Photos are from the seller...

coinfreak499

MS 64?

ER

66?

morgannut2

Depends entirely on the imaged "mark" in front of the mouth, and if those are ticks or toning on center cheek. First impression is a 66 if it has typical nice 97S luster. But I know you cheated and talked to the dealer!! Nice coin

RVDavis

Strong MS 65, gorgeous coin

techeff

66

relayer

I think it's a 66

Numismanic

MS65

CalGold

No breast feathers. This date usually comes well struck. 64

dorkkarl

i guessed ms-65, w/ the usual digi-pic caveats (ie. can't read the luster)

K S

mgoodm3

65

Shamika

65

K6AZ

MS64.

Stuart

MorganNut2: On this particular coin I did not speak with the dealer because it was an E-Bay auction (while I usually do for dealer direct purchases). I just evaluated the coin by these photos, and went with my best judgement of how to "read" the digital images. It must be the gambler in me...

But, I usually take controlled risks that I can accurately measure with more upside potential than downside risk

ziggy29

64.

boz

MS64
eye & cheekmarks

morgannut2

With THAT information Stuart, and knowing your love of undergraded 64's, I will change my vote to a 64 holder now,

and unless that's a doctered picture hiding an album slide hairline, well you've talked me down to 65. They are very

hard on MS-66's, but a jump to 65 gives you a 200% value jump with minimal downside, which ain't bad!!!! Busted Bill

Steve27

I hope the pictures lie, because if it really doesn't have any breast feathers (as shown), it's an AU58.

coinguy89

Im going with MS-65, but like previously stated, it's probably going to be all in the breastfeathers.

jdsinva

Pictures look like they don't tell the whole story but using them as a guide, I would say MS64.

Jeff

coinbuf

MS63

Chris

Stuart

Thanks to all who have participated and shared your grading expertise with us on this coin. As of this posting the Forum members are about evenly split between MS-64 (37%) & MS-65 (34%), with MS-66 at 16%.

The coin is graded PCGS MS-64, and from the photo appears to me to be at least solid for the grade, and perhaps a liner coin that is a shot-65.

I'll update this thread when I receive the coin and can examine it in person.

Stuart

Here are the actual auction photos of my new 1897-S Morgan directly from the auction listing. They are higher resolution than the compressed images that I posted earlier in this thread to comply with the Forum server 50 KByte limitation.

Thanks to forum member DizzleCC for pointing out that these photos are indeed more revealing of the coin's true characteristics than the smaller more compressed image that I posted earlier.

Would these images have changed anybody's grade estimate??

K6AZ

Not mine, but as you know I just got a 64 back from PCGS that I thought had a shot at 5, so this was a no brainer for me.

morgannut2

I don't own one and I just learned something about grading this date/mm.

Stuart

As promised, here's the update to this thread after having received this 1897-S PCGS MS-64 Morgan Dollar yesterday.

This is a winner! The coin looks significantly better in hand than in the photo (and the photo looks pretty nice). It's actually a just miss PL coin with a reverse that is about 95% PL reflectivity and an obverse that is probably about 85% PL reflectivity.

It's also got a very pleasing light cameo contrast between the nearly PL fields and the devices, and has the eye appeal of what I'd grade at MS-65. The coin looks better than many MS-65's that I've seen.

Needless to say I am very pleased with this purchase!!

BigGreek

Congrats on a great coin!

Stuart

Thanks Big Greek!!

Cam40

very nice.
one of the better struck morgies i,ve seen.
and, could get a 5 on a good day imo.
wtg stuart

Stuart

Thanks Cam40!!