1896-O Morgan Guess The Grade!

This can be one of the toughest Morgan's to grade due to the poor strikes that plague this date and mm.

Someone had a raw 96-O here a few years ago that I kept encouraging him to get graded. I think he thought it was high end AU.....I though it was low end unc. I think he ended up with an NGC grade of 62.

I'd say this coin is similiar to that one and should fall in the 61/62 catagory. It is a tough, tough coin in higher Unc grades and the CDN shows it.

I have some ?s about weak strikes' IDs and effects upon the final grade of a Morgan or Peace.

1. Does an on-line list exist detailing the years and MMs exhibiting what one should encounter w/r/t a silver dollar's weak strike characteristics?

2. Does an average weak strike justify a one step lowering (ie 58 to 55) of the final grade that a dollar might receive compared to a normally struck Morgan, for example?

The fields look like original mint lustre. I think MS62.

I'll say 63 but with a low confidence factor. Very attractive eample.

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.