Jordan, I haven't looked at the others' responses yet so as not to be influenced, but I'm not comfortable grading a Morgan as prooflike without having it in hand; there's too many subtleties in the sharpness of a strike that need to be examined under magnification.
The luster on all these Morgans is almost too much in the images and there's a little blurring on the 1879S Morgans most critical attributes: the feathers on the arrows on the reverse. The top two 79S's appear to me to be Reverse of 78 with Parallel Arrow Feathers (PAF) while the third 79S appears to be Reverse of 79 with Straight Arrow Feathers (SAF). I may be all wet on these variety attributions since the reflections due to the luster may be fooling me, but the two 79S's with Reverse of 78 are considerably more valuable than the 79S with Rev of 79, especially in Mint State. I'll leave it up to you to determine if they are PAF or SAF since they really needs to be examined in hand. Also, the mint marks are a little fuzzy on some of them, but they appear to be as labeled below.
I also think the images are doing an injustice to these beautiful Morgans because I think they are adding imperfections which are not there, but here goes my guesses based on the images:
1. 79S rev of 78 MS-62
2. 79S rev of 78 MS-62
3. 79S rev of 79 MS-63
4. 81S MS-62/63. Nice toning.
5. 87 MS-64/65
6. 99O MS-62/63.
If I'm anywhere in the ballpark on these guesses, I'd say the first two are absolutely worth grading if they are, in fact Reverse of 78's.
The toning would add value in my opinion since I like toned Morgans, but some Morgan collectors don't like toning. From the images, the 81S has the nicest toning (they all look a little toned except the 87, but that might be a function of the lighting); the 81S might even have Deep Mirror characteristics. In value, if I'm somewhat close to the mark, the latter four are probably worth it to get professionally graded although it is a toss-up since grading costs could be half the value of each (VERY roughly $50 each); a benefit-cost analysis would depend upon how much you paid for them, how much you are willing to spend to have them graded and slabbed, and the actual grades which come back. In any instance, having them graded by a top
TPG would enhance their salability and secure you top dollar in the event you wish to sell them. Raw, they would fetch maybe at best only half or less of their "book value". If it were me, I'd get them slabbed and let the chips fall where they may.
Now to see what the others say.
Fred
Posted 05/23/2006 10:04 pm
I wish time travel were possible so I could go back to the mints and hold each Morgan while they were still warm from the stamping.
