Does the Van Allen/Mallis (4th Edition) contain all of the "discovered" varieties up to that time? Or does it only include the more interesting varieties? Basically should I be able to find all of my Morgans listed? And if I can't it's a function of: -- I'm not recognizing the diagnostics, or -- the coin is too worn to see the diagnostics, or -- it's an undiscovered variety (hey, I can dream). Hopefully there are a number of experts here who, with good images from me, can help when I get stuck. I say "when", not "if", because I know it's going to happen. My experiences with Capped Bust half dime die marriages has shown me that.
Most of them up to the date of print. All of the above. There are some years that have VAMS not yet assigned so if you can't find it check there as well I would check vamworld.com and vam update Good luck :thumb: Just remember sometimes they can be really tough and unlike the bust coins very small things that you wouldn't expect are the reasons for the VAM not large things like die cracks(which sometimes don't get mentioned at all.)
The 4th Edition was published in 1991, and at that time, there were about 1800 varieties. Today, between Morgan and Peace dollars, there are more than 4000, and the number is still growing. Annual updates for all successive years are available for purchase from Leroy Van Allen. All varieties, no matter how minor they may be, are added via updates as they are discovered. Sometimes, a variety may be listed many, many years prior to discovering that it is actually a subvariety of the die pair. In cases like these, they are usually merged together as the newer discovery. In other cases, subvarieties are discovered at a later date as it is with the 1882-CC VAM-2 and they are added as alphanumeric extensions of the original assignment. A good source for VAM identification is VAMWorld. Bear in mind that it is a Wiki-based site which means that anyone can post photos there. Sometimes, they run into a problem when a person fails to give their photo a unique name when posting it, and they can unintentionally overwrite another photo. Sometimes, you may also find listings that have no photos at all. You have to remember that some of these were discovered long before advanced computers, software and digital photography were even used in the mainstream. And, of course, other times you will see photo after photo after photo of the exact same area of the coin just because someone wanted to have their "contribution" noted. It can even go as far as a listing having terrible photographic examples which serve no purpose whatsoever. I enjoy trying to help others determine what variety they may have, but my eyesight has deteriorated to the point that if I don't have the coin in hand to view with my stereomicroscope or hi-res close-up photos, it's almost impossible for me to make any determination. I would like to help you if I can, but I won't know if I'll be of help until I view the photos. Chris
Die cracks on Morgan's are relatively common since they are struck with 150 tons of pressure, give or take. As a rule, die cracks don't warrant a VAM assignment unless it is a major one with substantial metal displacement such as the 1888-O VAM-1B "Scarface". Die cracks are more often used to help determine a die state (EDS, MDS or LDS). Chris
How many Morgans are in the collection? It's probably going to be a fairly tedious task. I tend to run into the biggest problems identifying VAMs when there's no pictures available, because sometimes the descriptions just aren't enough. I'd suggest starting with easier years (mainly the years with lower numbers of VAMs per date/mm), and then work up to the years with tons of VAMs. Hopefully you have no 1921 Morgans , those can be just brutal to ID.
Heck, yeah! Forget about trying to find MS examples of each and every known VAM. If you wanted to amass a complete set of "problem coins" at melt value, it would set you back more than $130K. Chris
