Under Graded Uncirculated 1896-O Morgan Dollars

#1 Might catch a 63, but the strike is just so-so and that spot around 3:00 of the Reverse is a concern.

#2 Looks graded correctly. Slight rub on both sides.

#3 Might be overgraded. I have it as an AU55.

#4 is probably fairly graded, however the area next to the neck and jawline concerns me. Kinda looks like it was spot cleaned.

I don't see any of the AU58s upgrading. You might get the MS62 up to 63, particularly if you have PCGS "restore" it.

with Unimpossible. First one may have a shot at 63 and the 58s are not undergraded.



fortcollins, what is your evidence of this claim? I have not observed this but have only seen looser standards for Morgans the last 4 or 5 submissions I saw through.

It's anecdotal, but here's what I'm seeing. On the common date Morgans especially, I've seen several coins in the 55-64 range graded in the last couple years that are tighter than they were 3+ years ago, but still nowhere near as tight as they were back in the day. In other words, trending back to where they were before things got looser. I haven't seen tougher standards on the F-EF Morgans, those have been much more consistent. In my world, I see a lot of them in bulk lots in estate sales and from people taking some profits from their collections. I haven't had as many raised eyebrow moments with "They graded this as what?" as I did around the start of the pandemic and that definitely makes it easier to negotiate with sellers and actually find some coins worth buying in estate sales. That's just what I'm seeing in my small corner of the world.

@jbuck @unimpossible @fortcollins @jacrispies @echidna Thank you all for your input!