1884 O Morgan

Thanks SuperDave for your insights and recommendations and I most readily give deference to your opinions and expertise based on the experience I know that you have. I was aware these were not rare nor even scarce but that's not really one of my considerations.

The "iffy" cost of slabbing, is to me just a nominal consideration even though it will most certainly exceed the cost of the purchase price. No, I'm not rich by any means but I think perhaps our perspectives may not be quite the same. To paraphrase something I read in one of your previous posts, "slabbing will not increase the value of the coin, only the cost". Is that close? For the most part, I agree with that statement. But what is value? Dollars or beauty? I'm sure it has different meanings for different people. To most of us I suspect, it would be both or we wouldn't be coin collectors.

Slabbing by an accredited TPG will ensure (not increase) the "graded" value of a Morgan as opposed to the market resale value, which of course fluctuates as always, with the price of bullion. But even given that, if one's interest is in only the resale value or investment, the long-term trend for Morgan prices has done nothing but gone upward. They will never again see face value. I still remember those Vegas casinos and all of those little old ladies with plastic buckets just full of silver dollars feeding those one-armed bandits. Didn't seem to bother me a bit back then. It was just commonplace at the time and a silver dollar was just worth a dollar.

So I'm going to take this little puppy and get it graded and preserved in a slab before anymore harm comes to it. And to tell you the truth SuperDave, I don't really care what grade it's finally given. MS-Nothing is fine with me. It looks to be a beautiful coin. Just get it into a slab and out of the cold and preserve whatever it has left. Most of you seem to think (and I value your opinions or I wouldn't have asked) it's MS64 PL or DMPL. Whatever it is, I'd just like to keep it that way.

It's certainly a beautiful coin. The second set of photos has me leaning a bit more toward MS-64+ or even MS-65 PL or DMPL.

Certainly worth having the pros at PCGS evaluate and slab you might have a really exceptional coin here.

Here she is in person. Amazing what a little magnification can do. Not sure it will hold up to MS64 now but there's no sign of the fingerprint I thought might be there on the obverse. The fleck on the eagle's wing is on the capsule, not the coin. As for the DMPL, looks good on both sides "through the capsule" but didn't wanna take it out of the airtite to be sure. Pix are right outta the camera except for resizing.

Little lady didn't make the grade. Local coin dealer says it's a body bag prospect due to cleaning. Still looks mighty purdy in hand though without the benefit of magnification. Think I'll just keep her wrapped up snug as a bug in a rug in her airtite and keep her for my pocket piece. Finally managed to take some decent fotos (for me). The long scratch from L 2nd/3rd star to UNUM is on the airtite.

Never trust a local coin dealer on a cleaning opinion.

Unless there are obvious fine parallel hairlines across the surfaces, chances are an uncirculated coin will NOT be bagged as cleaned even if it has been dipped many time.

Jack, these pix were taken with a Canon A720/IS 8MP point n shoot camera. It came out a number of years ago and I got it from ebay for $90. Think the original price was $500-something. No computer plug-in (like to have one though). Just use a copystand and then put the camera's SD card into computer to see what kind of results I got. I'm still not totally happy with the results I'm getting and still experimenting but check out SuperDave's post at https://goccf.com/t/29441. Excellent tutorial on coin photography using lower end cameras. I do have an old JVC 3.3MP camera which works the best for super macro shots recommended by Bryan1315.

Fenton, this particular coin dealer is a PCGS authorized dealer and so thought I was in good hands. I wouldn't have thought he'd recommend against submission since he stands to make "dinero" on the transaction. Perhaps his code of ethics overcame his love of the $$ signs. But thanks for your thoughts. Now you've got me wondering agaih.

Every coin is different, which blows the concept of slabbing out of the water. The whole idea of slobbing is that one ms64 is the same as any other ms64, and it doesn't take much exposure to coins to know that is bullship.

Another major failing is body bagged coins, except for fakes. Two coins almost identical, one has been baking soda'd. First comes back 65, worth $10,000, second one body bagged. Essentially, the TPG is saying the cleaned coin is worthless, same as a fake, but we all know a knowledgeable collector might gladly pay $5000 for it.

It does look like it was wiped at one point, I must say... still a very fine coin.