Today we will continue a long series showing unslabbed Morgan Dollars.
This series is dedicated to my #ssg-community friend @silverd510, a real expert in this field.
PCGS, the first coin grading and authentication service, started slabbing coins in 1986.
Those coins were bought since the late seventies to the late eighties, and the dealers attributed the grades to them.
I bought them from three big and highly regarded dealers at the time. Unfortunately they do not exist any more. Things change in forty years...
These dealers were very strict when grading, so if I send these coins to be graded and slabbed maybe I will receive higher grades. Who knows...
I will show them in the order they were minted.
This is the MS-63 1878-S Morgan Dollar.
I bought it at NERCA (New England Rare Coins Auctions) for $70.
It weights 26.73g with 90% silver purity.
9,774,000 units were minted in San Francisco in 1878.
A large number of those first Morgans struck in San Francisco remained in their vaults for decades. Due to this large number withheld from circulation, the 1878-S Morgan dollar is common even through the gem level.
Just to have an idea of rarity about this coin's grade, from a total of 51,731 1878-S coins in mint state, NGC graded 19,489 as MS-63, with 23,155 graded higher, until today (11/28/2019).
The NGC MS-63 price is around $95.00.
The reverse depicts an eagle with wings outstretched. The mint mark always appears on the reverse above the "o" in "Dollar", except those minted in Philadelphia, that have no mint mark.
The obverse depicts a profile portrait representing Liberty.
Thank you for reading. Please comment, upvote, resteem and advise me.