1893-CC Morgan, Opinion On Grade

A nice looking VG8 IMHO ! Mike

I'm slow getting onto this Morgan thread - t'was a busy holiday season.

Like others, I really need to see both sides before making a judgement, but based on the obverse, my initial thought was F-12. However, given PCGS's trend toward being tough on Morgans, I'd take off a bit and go with VG-08. I'm pleased that this thinking is in line with ND and PCGS's opinions.

There's no doubt in my mind that PCGS has been increasingly tough on Morgans in recent years. My 1893-CC is a PCGS VF-30 which if compared with this one would (and often is on ebay) be labelled XF by many if it were raw. I submitted an older "green label" MS-65 CC a couple years ago I thought might go higher based on comparison with a more recently graded MS-66 CC. PCGS sent it back as an MS-65. So much for the notion that the "green label" PCGS grades are worth more than recently graded PCGS coins because they were more conservatively graded. I also recently (this past year) submitted a raw 1892-CC which, when compared with PCGS-graded Morgans in my collection and on the opinion of others I was pretty sure would come back at least MS-64; nope - came back MS-63. I would be very hesitant about resubmitting any of my MS-64 and MS-65 Morgans graded a couple years ago; I don't believe they would sustain their current grades.

Fred