The Professional Coin Grading Service description for the Mint State 62 grade on Dr. William Sheldon’s 1 to 70 scale is succinct: “No wear, with below or average strike. Numerous marks or hairlines.” Numismatic Guaranty Corp. uses a more comparative approach, considering the MS-62 grade as it relates to an MS-63 coin, writing, “Slightly weak or average strike with no trace of wear. More or larger abrasions than a Mint State or Proof 63.”

Heritage’s Feb. 20 to 23 Long Beach Expo auctions included three silver dollars that showed different aspects of this grade. The most expensive dollar in the auction was an 1893-S Morgan dollar graded MS-62 by NGC. The issue is a series key with a low mintage of just 100,000.

Heritage writes, “Most of the Uncirculated examples yield from a single hoard of about two dozen Uncirculated 1893-S pieces, found mixed in with a bag of freshly minted 1894-S dollars.”

All Mint State survivors are six-figure coins. This one, with some slight hairlines and partially reflective, slightly subdued surfaces with bluish-gray toning, sold for $150,000 at the Feb. 20 Premier Session, a relatively modest price for a Mint State representative of this series key.

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