1881 S Morgn Dollar

I'd guess AU to MS-62 defintely not prooflike, maybe even polished, the coin has a strange look to it, almost too bright and shiny, the description said it was hard to photograph, PL coins are not that hard to shoot, I see no white areas on the devices where there should be.

Too big of a hit on the cheek to make it a 64 coin. There are tons of this coin available in super high grade, just keep looking, you should be able to get a nice TPG Graded one for reasonable, DMPLs and PLs are not hard at all.

[eBayItem] 110808565168[/eBayItem]

That one is priced high but is what a DMPL should look like. A MS63 DMPL should be around $150.00+ Most that are raw that say DMPL would be lucky to grade PL at most TPGs. A strong cameo effect is needed with super reflective fields, showing newsprint easily from more than 6" distance.

I know there are still tons of them out there as I used to buy rolls of DMPL and PL 81-S dollars all the time in the late 80's, that and a few other dates (80-S, 79-S, etc.) were very plentiful mostly all S mint coins along with some O mints. Keep looking don't be in a hurry the right one will come along soon enough for this date/mintmark. Check places like Teletrade/Heritage you should have no trouble getting a nice DMPL for not much more than twice what the one that got away cost.

It might go PL (not DMPL) on a good day. With the cheek marks and the huge ding on the reverse, I wouldn't rate it higher than ms60.

There are bags of this date in full PL and ms65. No point in buying damaged.

I agree this may go PL but I really doubt it would actually make that. There are plenty of graded examples of this date/mm combination for about the same price and you would know what someone thought when they had the coin in hand, not going by just a picture. This one may go MS-64 and as I said it may have a small chance at going PL but these are so common you can get them pretty cheap (compared to other Morgans) even in DMPL and in a higher grade. You have to remember this is one date/mm combination of the Morgan dollar series that PCGS has graded MS-69 (1880-S was graded MS-69PL) and them being easily accessible in high grades is what makes the 1880-S through 1882-S the perfect type coin

A MS-64 looks possible but the pictures are not the easiest to grade from.