1886-O Morgan Dollar - Newbie

[glennajohn02]

Another one for the Morgan Collectors

 

 

 

 

 

[FILTHYHOARD]

Welcome to the boards. Unfortunately, AU details, harshly cleaned/polished

[glennajohn02]

Hey there Filthy

 

On the cleaning - how do u tell ?

thx

 

[Kamillion]

there are some hairline scratches i see (faint ones going in different directions). i think that comes from cleaning.

 

swirl the coin around and you should see luster if it isn't cleaned. that coin doesn't appear to have the luster.

 

when i joined this board last year, it was because i had just bought like 10 or so similar Morgans, thinking i got a nice score. I wanted help grading them just like this.

 

Then i realized how little I knew. actually, i knew nothing, now i know a little.

 

the coin is PROBABLY worth a little above spot. but who knows, it's just a picture which is tough to tell.

 

hmmm other than that, hi, welcome. .

[Raisethis2]

Welcome to the boards glenajohn02. The coin appears AU to me for the following reasons:

 

There appears residual luster around the arrow tips and "In God We Trust" (for example) but then the other areas show "rub".

 

The high points on the cotton bolls and leaves on the obverse for example. When grading a Morgan look for consistent luster in a cartwheel throughout the surface. Some luster removed by another coin and not in usage will break the luster pattern on high points but just here or there, not consistently.

 

The best way to determine wear is to hold the coin flat at about your mouth level with your magnifying glass (hopefully no more than 8X) at about a 45 degree angle. The light will reflect best about here. Remember, you're looking at a piece of metal. Wear or "rub" looks dull compared to the other areas.

 

Try looking at the same coin using this method and see how it explains more about the coin.

 

The random hairlines running in all different directions trump anything else about the coin since this is impossible on a freshly minted coin. Those marks are man made.

 

 

 

 

[James_OldeTowne]

AU-55 but cleaned.

[glennajohn02]

thanks for the input guys !!