Silver Dollar, 1897-O, PCGS MS 66 CAC

A stunning example, the strike is needle sharp, with both the hair over Liberty’s ear, and the eagle’s chest feathers crisp and fully delineated. The beading and edge details are equally as sharp. The coin is fully white, the lustre is rich (as Wayne Miller described it, “glowing”), and the surfaces are virtually pristine, whether examined by the naked eye or under five or ten power magnification. All of these characteristics stand in stark contrast to the universal summation of the issue as a whole as being: “poorly struck, [with] inadequate luster and worse than average bagmarks” (Miller, p. 151); “Strike-soft and weak; Luster-poor; Bag Marks moderate” (Highfill, 2017, p.1325); “Usually weak at centers, with unsatisfactory lustre.” (Bowers, Encyclopedia, 1993 and PCGS CoinFacts). A fantastic coin. One of the finest known.