Morgan 1881 S Had Been Bought In London This Week

the quality looks great. I can't really tell if there are any wear marks. The brightness of the coin along with a few dark spots on the obverse at the P and at the base of the neck, would make me suspicious that it might have been cleaned.

With coins, it can be hard sometimes to tell if a coin is original or has a light cleaning. The more obvious cleaned coins will often have this uniform shine and hairlines all over the coin. When it comes to higher grade coins, the luster is often dull and lifeless. I have included a link to a picture of a coin that I found off Heritage of a more obvious cleaned example.
http://images.ha.com/lf?source=url%...md%5btrue%5d
http://images.ha.com/lf?source=url%...md%5btrue%5d
From the looks of your coin, it does not seem like it has been cleaned. The spots that Fuzzy is talking about seem to be carbon spots though they are not the result of contact with carbon but sulfur. The presence of carbon spots does not mean definitively that a coin has been cleaned. Your coin looks mint state and may be a high MS grade as the surfaces especially the face do not seem to have many marks.

Thanks D0ubl3Eagle!

I see no reason to believe it's been dipped. The other poster made that suggestion, I think, because of the difference in luster between the obverse and reverse - the reverse shows Prooflike qualities while the obverse does not.

Yes, this is one potential outcome of dipping. It's also a common appearance for undipped Morgans - dies did not live their entire lives together, and it's quite natural for a brand-new reverse die to be paired with a worn obverse. I would be looking for signs that the obverse die was worn and much older than the reverse - there should be a noticeable difference in strike quality between the two.

The coin may have been dipped. Done right, no-one will ever know for sure.

Nice coin MS-64+ or MS-65. Impossible to say whether it has ever been dipped but, with no hairlines, this would not be flagged as cleaned.

(many "blast white" Morgans are dipped; doesn't really hurt the grade much so long as they have only been dipped once or twice)

WOW, MS-61, I would have expected a MS-63 at least. I think they were a little harsh on this coin because they are so used to seeing MS-65-MS-68 of this date/mm combination pretty regularly and the ones that are not in super high grades get treated poorly by the graders because they are spoiled by the higher grade ones coming through

I think Bryan is correct, its a very harsh grade for this coin, yet the 1881-s is known for such superb strikes in general if one were to compare this coin to others graded MS61's , There is no comparison, I thought maybe MS64 and MS63 for sure....MS 61 is a slap in the face....one must remember there is .."NOT equality in grading"... graders go by the year and known issues of every year in determining the over all assigned grade given...while there is more than a few books and online examples of grades and photo's to reference your coin to for a grade..it does not apply to the grader MS61 from NGC is a cold slap in the face in my eyes. when I have seen thousands of coins from them in far worse shape with better given grades...
At this rate, and your location, I would only buy coins that have been graded by the top 3 grading companies...which have values you can know and not over pay for...
the price of a raw coin, value of raw coin subject to the grade plus submission fees is to much...unless you absolutely get it for far less money, know the year and its known assigned grades..by the way PCGS and probably NGC also shows the known numbers of all years they have assigned grades to at there respective websites...these facts are something you can see and review on there website...All coinage is a learning curve...Each denomination has its own identities and quirks...grading standards and issues for any given year in there series...... Take this as a learning experience, as the Morgan series is a wonderful coin...By online on ebay will be be far cheaper than in Europe....By certified coins from the major dealers... here...it will cost you less and you will get what you pay for...most likely in your area they will be worth more to you there than they are here to us in the USA as they are plentiful here, not so there..you will pay more there for the same coin by far...as you now know...
In the mean time...Here's a big from all of us here at CCF, G....