Morgan Grading Fun! GTG contest. My near-complete grading set (Warning: LOTS of pics!)
david3142
Posts: 3,533 ✭✭✭✭✭
I recently noticed that I own a Morgan dollar in almost every single grade from VF25 through MS67 (not including + grades although I have several of those). The only one I don't have is AU50, probably because most aren't that nice, and you can usually find a better AU for about the same money. For the fun part, I will list all of the grades and then all of the coins. See if you can match them up! Closest guess will be awarded proper congratulations at the end of the week. Some of the coins are PL or DMPL, although that is omitted from the grade list so you can't use it as a guide. Where possible, I tried to use blast white, non-toned, non-mirrored coins and coins I have not previously posted. I do believe that several coins are undergraded here, so that adds to the level of difficulty. Enjoy!
Grades:
VF25
VF30
VF35
XF40
XF45
AU53
AU55
AU58
MS60
MS61
MS62
MS63
MS64
MS64+
MS65
MS65+
MS66
MS66+
MS67
Coins (in chronological order):
1) 1879-CC
2) 1879-S Reverse of 1878
3) 1880-O
4) 1881-S
5) 1883
6) 1883-S
7) 1887-S
8) 1891-S
9) 1892-S
10) 1893-CC
11) 1893-O
12) 1893-S
13) 1894-O
14) 1894-S
15) 1896
16) 1900
17) 1900-O
18) 1901
19) 1902
Comments
Good luck to the players, my brain hurts on GTG threads over two coins.
Edit to add, nice group of Morgan's.
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Wow... Maybe later.... that will take a spreadsheet .... Some very nice Morgans there... Cheers, RickO
Yeah I had to make a couple of passes by assigning grades to the coins and then re-assigning any dups to the grades that didn't have any coins assigned to them. Needless to say I spent a lot more time that 7 seconds per coin
VF25 #10 1893-cc
VF30 #12 1893-s
VF35 #9 1892-s
XF40 #11 1893-o
XF45 #1 1879-cc
AU53 #13 1894-o
AU55 #18 1901
AU58 #6 1883-s
MS60 #3 1880-o pl
MS61 #7 1887-s pl
MS62 #14 1894-s pl
MS63 #2 1879-s rev 78
MS64 #8 1891-s pl
MS64+ #19 1902
MS65 #17 1900-o
MS65+ #16 1900
MS66 #15 1896
MS66+ #4 1881-s
MS67 #5 1883
Awesome group there!
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I like the 93s a lot.
Many members on this forum that now it cannot fit in my signature. Please ask for entire list.
Thanks for spending the time to do this... Not sure I have time to do this in one sitting. Here goes:
1879-cc 53
1879-S rev 78. 63
1880-o 61
1881-s. 67
1883. 66+
1883-s. 55
1887-s. 60
1891-s. 64+
1892-s 35
1893-cc. 25
1893-o. 40
1894-o. 45
1894-s. 62
1896. 65
1900. 66
1900-o. 65+
1901. 58
1902. 64
Great bunch of Morgans with tough choices which include the possibility of flipping the 1879-cc. and 1894-o, flipping the 1881-s and the 1883 as well as the 1900 and 1900-o. The 1883 is my favorite even though I did not give it the 67. My least favorite was the 1883-s. I suspect it looks better in hand.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Thanks for the responses so far. I guess 19 coins is a little daunting. Perhaps I should have split it into circ and MS, but distinguishing the high AU frm low MS coins is also part of the challenge.
@david3142
Maybe reveal the ones that graded VF and XF and start a couple of new threads with the AU-63 and 64-67 in two smaller groups might generate a few more guesses.
Thanks very much to the 2 who responded!
This was admittedly a lot of coins to guess and the format made for second-guesses as it is very hard to tell the grades apart for some of these. By my scoring system, the results are a tie! You both missed the correct order by a total of 16 (although coinkat forgot the 93-S). No one missed any coin by more than 2 spots in the order.
Here are the actual grades:
1893-S VF25 -- I think this coin should be a VF30 and it is pretty clearly nicer than the 93-CC. I have a few other 30s and only one of them is nicer than the 93-S.
1893-CC VF30
1892-S VF35
1893-O XF40 -- the 92-S and 93-O are really close and the 92-S actually has some luster remaining, but both of you got these exactly right.
1879-CC XF45
1894-O AU53
1883-S AU55 - this coin has no actual wear but was net graded due to some hairlines in the fields
1901 AU58
1880-O MS60DPL. The cheek on this coin is crazy clean. I think it should be a 62.
1894-S MS61PL. Another clean cheek - should be a 62 as well.
1887-S MS62. The obverse is a 62, but the reverse is a 66DMPL. Cool coin.
1891-S MS63. Nice flashy coin and very close to PL (and may be a 64 too).
1902 MS64.
1879-S Rev 78 MS64+. Harder to tell how clean this is with the toning, but it's a really neat, tough date. CAC too.
1900 MS65. Clean enough to be a 66.
1896 MS65+
1900-O MS66
1883 MS66+
1881-S MS67,
Thanks again for undertaking this.
There are some simple take aways such as the difficulty in accurately grading from images. It also illustrates the subjective nature of grading and how collectors judgment can be influenced especially if they like the coin. The point here is simple... Coins I tend to like for what they are are ones I will give the benefit of the doubt to in terms of a grade opinion. And that explains my decision on placing the 1879 -cc at 53 instead of the 1894-o which at first blush seems to be the obvious choice.. The 1894-o is fairly available with these characteristics and the 1879-cc is not. My view was that original look of the 79-cc would have made it an AU50 candidate... And maybe it got the benefit of the doubt for being the coin that it is. Well, that thought did not carry the day.
As for the 1893-cc at 30, that may in part have to do with the difference in the quality of strikes for this date. And perhaps there was a benefit as graders may have had reason to believe it was a notorious flat strike-that is the best I can come up with for the justification at 30. I am surprised that the 1893-s graded 25.
I initially saw the 1879-s rev 78 as a 64 and changed it to a 3 because I was unable to adequately see the fields to justify the grade from the image. Even though I liked it more that the 1891-s, which I still liked a lot, I graded the 1891-s higher.
Overall, a fun exercise and reveals that grading is just not as easy as it appears to be.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Looking back at the piece of paper that I first wrote down the grades, i had a few more assigned to the correct grade.
But then got into trouble when I had to choose only one coin for that grade.
I too had the 79-s rev of 78 at 64+ initially.
I also had the 81-s and 83 both at 66+ and decided that the 83 might have got the 67 based on color.
Nice group of coins.
enjoyed the contest, wish more did them so i can test myself,
Thanks both for your comments. I appreciate the time and thoughts that went into your responses and your analysis of the specific coins. Grading from pictures is very hard!
I may do another one with fewer coins. Maybe only 63-66 or something like that. A lot of those grades I only have one representative. I have a LOT of 64s though.