1881-S Morgan For Your Grading

For a 1881-S it looks low quality, and the toning is not eye appealing...IMHO.
John1

Not sure about the cleaning. Sometimes a bad cleaning will make it tone oddly.
John1

gotta work on those photos moniker. I know youre struggling with that but once you find the sweet spot you'll have it.

a couple fingerprints on the obv. blotchy toning, reverse looks completely flat and void of its original skin. your photos? maybe but can't tell. angling a coin does not help.

silver tones in the following sequence

1. yellow gold
2. Brown
3. Blue
4. Red
5. Green
6. Purple
7. Black

all toned coins will eventually go black. you should see this progression in the color shifts. your photos are not really good enough to say its natural or not. the 4th obv photo is the best to see the colors but its at a sharp angle

i think its natural however the reverse photos presented are presenting a cleaned coin. I'm at AU details (cleaned)

Thank you all, shes very hard to take photos of.
Rev is strange like a thin layer of toning ontop
It mirrors underneath.
Possibly the most photographed coin in history yet I fail to deliver
First photo direct sunlight
Second my phone visible in reflection
Thankful for your patience
Fingerprint 3 obv

Reverse I try to take photos of sections. it glimmer under likes its a thin film over it or something,
Dark area is phone

the first obv new photo is about the best you can expect. note that setup and scrap the angles unless asked for them. they just clutter up the thread.

toning should not look like its sitting on the surface of the coin. it comes from the light refraction on the fine hairlines on the surface not visible to the eye caused by oxidation. you would see thicker oxidation around the edges, this is why the darker colors are there first.

Artificial toning usually shows abrupt changes in color versus the continuous graduations often seen on naturally toned coins. Also, artificially toned coins are often first chemically stripped of all toning then treated with sulfur compounds or other chemicals and then heated. When one chemically removes the oxide coating, the coin's flow lines that are present on a uncirculated coin are partially removed. This results in a dull coin or one with a significant loss of luster. this can also occur if any chemical was used to clean the coin but was not rinsed properly leaving a coating on the surface and enhancing the oxidation process

your coin is tough call on either method. one thing you can do that we can't is rotate the coin. looks for that luster on the surfaces. for a coin at this grade level that luster should still be there. if its not then there is a good chance the original surface was stripped off and re-toned.

it is a common coin so it doesn't make that big a difference in the value of the coin. I'm going to call it AU58 details (cleaned)

Its bad we can't post vids both side shows cartwheel reflection

Looks like a heavily toned MS-63 coin that someone did a botched dip on. Usually you can't dip a coin that has very heavy toning. I don't think that will details it but I'd personally net grade it down to an AU-58.