These are scans, which kinda throw one's perceptions off when evaluating for grade. On a scan, "dark" tends to be "bright" in-hand, and vice versa. Unfortunately, "color" tends to be "dark," also.
So, the color on the lower obverse could be fairly lustrous in-hand, but not seen here. The rest of the obverse field isn't terrifically bright, but the reverse is, especially down the center.
Further, the orientation of the coin to the direction in which the scanner's light passes can have an effect; this one was oriented nice and square I think, as if it were being photographed correctly. With most scanners, that makes the coin appear as if it were lit from 6:00.
Now, here's how that plays on the cheek, where we first look when grading a Morgan: The darker spots, especially below the eye, are likely less-consequential. They're almost certainly just luster breaks. It's the things that look "bright" on the scan that interest us; they're features which are deep enough to reflect back into the scanner sensor. Of those, there are darn few. Extending our view out into the fields, we see an equal scarcity of individual "marks" of either dark or light flavor - indeed, there's virtually nothing to draw the eye there.
Now, understanding that these images are rather too small to form conclusive opinion....I wouldn't be surprised to see this one in an MS66 slab. The single-worst mark I see is at the hairline, right behind the eye - I think its' directional orientation to the scanner light masks it's depth.
The best thing about a bicycle is that it uses no gasoline, therefore the chance of fiery death is greatly reduced.
First Catman, then Gary Burke and now Bigg Fredd - there's one heck of a coin club in Heaven.
Posted 03/12/2012 10:20 pm
