Help Me Learn - 1886 Morgan

Your photos are quite good for a "newbie". You just need to diffuse that light a bit.

When I attempt to grade Uncirculated coins (especially Morgans) I start from the top and work down. By this I mean a perfect strike on a perfect planchet that is retrieved off the press with cotton gloves and flawlessly preserved would be a 70. Of course all business strikes went down that chute and impacted their brethren, so the idea of an accurately graded MS-70 Morgan is a fantasy. The closest anyone has come is a MS-69. This coin has no visible flaws, a perfect strike and no contact marks. A minor mark will reduce it to a 68 or 67 and several will make it a 66. The more contact, the lower the grade.

Your coin shows mint luster and a normal amount of contact marks. Most of these coins will be MS-63.

With glaring marks in the most obvious places this will drop it further to 62 or 61.

There also aren't many accurately graded Morgans in MS-60. These are usually awarded the AU-55/AU-58 grade.

I would tend to disagree with those who question the coin's luster; in direct light, a truly lustrous coin demonstrates that dark/light affect in the fields. It's actually the dark areas which clue me in more about luster than the bright ones. A coin lacking luster will have less of this contrast. I agree with the grade put forth, but I don't think there's anything wrong with the luster.

Your PHOTO's are much better, now....Gene

There's not a large enough "devil emoticon" for that comment.

But the change in photos would lend itself to a further discussion on photo manipulation. This would be especially helpful for those who see a dazzling ebay image and then get buyer's remorse with the coin in-hand.

On my computer your 1st photo was better for grading purposes and I could tell right away it was dipped and no more than AU...Good luck!

That was said in jest.

If this coin has been dipped, it was done well enough so that it cannot be determined from photographs. Just like the overwhelming majority of coins which have been dipped. Done right, it's not possible to tell a coin has been dipped.

It is purely the nature of diffuse lighting which makes it appear dipped. Diffuse lighting does not accurately represent luster. What it does, in fact, is present the classic appearance of an "overdipped" coin, the only stage of dipping which can be accurately determined from a mere photograph. Your first set showed a coin with excellent luster, and that's the coin you have.

By all means, return the coin if you wish, but not based on my opinion one way or the other.