1896-O Morgan Guess The Grade!

Because of my hatred for toned coins, this one screams DIP ME!! I give it a failing grade of AU50 as too high. After a quick dip/removal of the horrible tone, I would probably go as high as 60.

AU-58

Three things haunt the later New Orleans Morgans. First, many dates were struck weakly. The 1896-O is definitely one of those. Second, the New Orleans mint had a maddening practice of receiving lightly circulated dollars back from local banks and returning them to mint bags. That left lightly circulated coins commingled with unreleased coins in some of the mint bags. Those two factors make it a challenge to differentiate between light circulation and weak strikes. Third, many of the New Orleans mint bags were handled with less care than sacks of flour, and were stored in humid conditions.

A couple give-aways for the strike/circulation distinction:
If the high point has luster, it is likely a soft strike, rather than circulation.
if the high point is weak, but slightly rounded, rather than flat, it likely is a weak strike, rather than circulation.
No matter how hard it is to do visually, ignore the toning. One way to do this is to adjust the photo to minimize the impact of the toning (sharply reducing the color contrast helps), and grade from the adjusted photo.

On this coin, the obverse weakness is in the central devices, rather than on all of the high points. For example, the cotton blossoms and the lower parts of the cotton leaves are strong. The lower ear, first curl of hair above the ear, cap fold, and hair above the forehead are soft. Thee is a loss of luster on the second cotton blossom, cap and cap fold, and second curl of hair above the forehead. This could be from minimal circulation or from a weak strike and rough handling at the mint. The reverse seems to answer the question. The outer feathers on the eagle's right wing (our visual left) are strong and have full luster. The eagle's breast is weak, but has is rounded and has full luster.

This suggests to me that the coin is an average weakly struck '96-O, a bit baggy, but uncirculated. I think the surfaces suggest a 63, with a one-point deduction for strike. MS-62 net. JMHO.

Very informative input from @fortcollins.

The hair above the tip of the ear on Morgans has always been a tough area for me to differentiate from being a weak strike as opposed to having some minor wear. And in this example it fooled me once again into guessing a 58.

Any help in more accurately calling it correctly in this area in specific when it's so close to the crossover point from AU to MS would be nice to have to engage my multi-faceted arsenal of strategically positioned attack armaments.

I still think NGC undergraded this coin. It has great luster for the date. Weak strike and the little ticks will keep it out of gem territory, however it's as nice as many MS63 or better coins of this date I've seen over the years.

Not way this is a MS coin. The rub on the cheek and hair above the ear is obvious. The luster is broken up to also indicating circulation. AU58