1889 Morgan With A Mushy Head - Grade It!

I'll say MS-63.

the 89(P) can be baggy and softer strikes.

good photos. the rub on the cheek is hiding some pretty good hits
Odee, I have a couple areas of concern. the right obv field marks are not normal contact marks. it looks like someone attempted to remove something, maybe a carbon spot and then whatever they tried to coverup that removed the original skin. if FC chimes in he may be able to assess that better.

the eagle breast is pretty banged up and the lack of detail here is typical for the year. there is a of dullness in the fields looks like a dip

i dont think the coin was circulated. I'm going with UNC details(cleaned)

Wow, this is a late die state coin.

Philadelphia had a moment that would have made New Orleans jealous from 1886-1889, with heavily over-used dies because of production demands. What I am seeing here are very heavy cold metal flow lines in almost all of the fields on the obverse and reverse. Typically, these are radial lines, moving from the central devices toward the rim. Most of the lines on this coin do that (the left obverse field is a great example). This coin has areas where the lines don't align directly center-toward-rim. Notice the metal flow around the ear lobe and also in the hair below the lobe and inside the D void. Others are much better metallurgical experts here, but to me the area in the right obverse field looks like radial flow lines, rather than tooling. There may also have been a carbon spot there, but to my eyes it doesn't look like it was scraped manually or tooled after removal.

The obverse center (the hair above the ear) is exceptionally weak. That also explains the eagle's breast weakness. I wonder if some die subsidence was going on with the obverse die, and if that explains the metal flow around the ear. Again, this die was a goner.

The cheek scratches are pretty deep. On the other hand, there aren't many other significant scratches, although there is quite a bit of chatter on the cap. To me, this looks like it could go either MS-62 or MS-63. The late die state may buy it some grace here, so I'll shrug and say MS-63.

It's a nice example of an exhausted die, and tells an important story about the mint's desperation to keep up with the flow of Comstock silver it was being sent.