PCI Silver Eagles versus PCI Morgan dollars

I have been collecting PCGS Silver Eagles for more than six years, marveling at their toning. You can see my PCGS Showcase set by clicking here.

These are fabulous coins, often more beautiful than any other kind of toning; the numismatic term, “monster,” applies to these. They come in pastel colors as well as ribbed and radar patterns. Here is a typical pastel:

Here is an American flag specimen whose toning happened because the coin was left in a ribbed cardboard mailer:

PCI Eagles also are known to tone in radar wave colors, as was the case for this specimen:

Some PCI Eagles continue to tone in the original holders. Sometimes an unsightly charcoal ring appears at the rim along with an occasional spot, detracting from their beauty. Often, however, the later colors are richer and more vibrant over time. The unsightly toning eventually ends when the substance’s ability to continue toning does. It’s a case by case scenario.

For the record, I have never seen a PCI Eagle go gray or black. I also recommend that you send PCI Eagles to PCGS in the original holders that often contain the term “100% White.” The toning challenges the holder company to ascribe “artificial” or “questionable” toning.

I don’t send PCI Eagles to NGC, which does not have a crossover submission category. Neither do I want the coins to be cracked out of their original holders and submitted to NGC, as some collectors prefer PCI slabs to any other, including PCGS.

In any case, the same type of toning occurs with select PCI Morgan dollars. Here are two (1899-O, 1900-O) in original eBay photos that I won recently along with three toned PCI 2001 Eagles:

You can see that the colors are the same in the Eagles and Morgans, including the circular-like toning patterns. These were submitted along with these 2001 PCI Eagles, all of which crossed over to PCGS:

The PCI Morgan dollars did not cross. That has been my experience in the several years that I have been submitting them to PCGS.

I purposely sent these PCI Morgan dollars with specific Eagles because of the similar toning and patterns, testing PCGS to see if it would cross over the Morgans.

I just don’t understand the grading decision here. There is no way that these colors and patterns can be replicated with the Morgans still in their original holders. Of course, I was disappointed, especially since the 1899-O was about MS-64 in my opinion.

Nevertheless, I re-submitted the Morgans, again with similarly toned PCI eagles. Only this time, I did two things: I submitted the coins as “regular” rather than “economy,” hoping perhaps more experienced graders. I also used the notation box on the submission to call attention to the graders that the colors of both the Eagles and the Morgans were the same, including the target toning.

Of course, I will follow up here.

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