Please help me grade these coins.

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June 6th, 2017 at 3:27:13 PM permalink
Wizard
Administrator
Member since: Oct 23, 2012
Threads: 239
Posts: 6095
An elderly friend of mine has been forced to liquidate his license plate collection, mostly to me. Now he is liquidating his coin collection. I've already bought some of it, mainly about $3,000 worth of bulk silver dimes, quarters, and dollars. Keep in mind that I am not very knowledgeable about old coins, despite my father helping me with a collection as a kid. I just never continued on with it, favoring license plates instead.

Part of this gentlemen's collection are these Morgan dollar coins from 1983 to 1990 in very nice condition. I have a 2015 price guide but am not sure what condition to grade the coins. It is also my understanding that this "official red book" is the full retail price and their actual value, meaning what you could easily sell them for, is about half that much. Here are links to pictures I took of the coins:

1881, (blurry)
1881 (back), (blurry)
1883,
1884,
1885,
1886,
1887,
1890.

You can see they are all about equal in condition. Sorry the 81 is rather blurry. I didn't get the mint mark of the others besides the 81 but I think it is safe to assume it is S or blank (Philadelphia).

Thanks in advance. The question for the poll is what would you grade these coins, on average? Only one vote per person this time. For those who don't know, here is what the abbreviations mean:

VF = Very fine
EF = Extra fine
AU = About uncirculated
MS = Mint state

Please only vote for the top eight choices if you know what you're talking about.
Knowledge is Good -- Emil Faber
June 6th, 2017 at 4:02:46 PM permalink
Ayecarumba
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 89
Posts: 1744
It is challenging to grade without close inspection since it is easy to polish old silver coins to make them appear to deserve a higher grade.

Here's a photo guide published by PCGS the grading service: https://www.pcgs.com/photograde/#/Morgan/Grades
June 6th, 2017 at 4:17:59 PM permalink
Evenbob
Member since: Oct 24, 2012
Threads: 146
Posts: 25011
Will they work in a vending machine, that's
how I grade coins..
If you take a risk, you may lose. If you never take a risk, you will always lose.