1878S Morgan Dollar For Your Consideration 1 1

[EGH49]

This is one of my favorite coins.

With an S mint mark I know she started out in San Francisco but made her way to New Jersey.   It came to me in a brown paper lunch bag rattling around with many other coins over 40 years ago.  After that it lived in a cardboard 2 x 2.  Recently I have been transferring many of my coins to Edgar Marcus plastic holders purchased from Wizard.  Some because they are in better condition or of higher value and others just because I love them.

I’m trying to determine an approximate grade for my coins so I can catalogue them.   I’ve been comparing mine with photos of graded coins online and the standards in the Red Book.   I know she’s dinged up from life in the paper bag but not heavily worn down.  I believe I see 7 tail feathers and the 2nd reverse.  Correct?

Would it qualify as EF?   I struggle with the numbers.

Please let me know your opinions.

[RWB]

EF is a reasonable grade. These are readily available so there's no monetary incentive to spending $50+ to have a "grading" company tell you what you already know.

Sounds like you're beginning to organize your coins and that's an excellent way begin. Also, pick up a copy of the Guide Book of US Coins (any year within the last decade will do) to learn more about your coins. That will help you form and ask questions here and learn from the members.

[powermad5000]

I think you may be confusing the different reverses of the 1878 (P) Morgans which had differences in tail feathers and also different reverses from usage of different die marriages at the time. The 1878 S are all the same obverses and reverses with only a couple varieties for DDO "RIB" and Long Nock Reverse, but other than that they were all minted from consistent dies.

I think your coin has a low AU reverse, but I think the overriding factor would be the obverse which I think XF would be appropriate. It is odd that the reverse looks much better than the obverse and that is probably due to the way the coin was stored. 

[J P M]

I think this coin could maybe sneak into AU. I have seen many MS coins with more ware on the obverse hair, bonnet and cotton balls I think the black soot is just making it harder to judge. 

[Coinbuf]

I see it as an EF, and do not think you could go wrong marking it as such.   There is no large value jump from XF to AU for a 78-S so better to be a touch conservative than over grade.