I've had a roll of 1998P Lincolns for about 2 years I bought on Ebay for $1.99 plus, as I recall $1.80 for shipping. It was advertised as original and unsearched. I took a chance. Last night around midnight I opened and started to look. This is what I found-12 WAM's! My luck actually started three days ago when I found my first WAM , the 1999P. It has damage so I did not post. Now I have to find the several rolls of 1999P's I salted away. As you can see, there are, actually unsearched rolls out there from time to time. This dealer probably did what Chris used to and got sealed bags of 5,000 and made up his own rolls. But to think he actually did not bother to search them out first, well, that was my luck.
For those of you who are asking "what the heck is a WAM?".. It means Wide AM in the word AMERICA There are also CAM"S.. Close AM
paddyman98 is correct. These WAM's mean wide AM in America on the reverse. The regular dies used had a close, nearly touching AM in America. But someone decided to use reverse proof coin dies, probably due to a shortage of available regular dies, which resulted in the variety I posted above. These are not as rare as the 1999P WAM, which can go for several hundred dollars each in high MS grade. Mine are worth closer to around $35.00 each or so in mid MS grade. But could go much higher if they grade out better. I have not attempted to try and grade mine yet.
Paddy also mentioned CAM's. This is the opposite of WAM in that a business strike die was used on the reverse Proof coins in the same spot, AM in America in this case is close together instead of being spaced wide apart.
I have a question for ANACS users. If I have already attributed these correctly, will ANACS still require the attribution fee? I just popped them an email but they are closed until Tuesday. I was thinking of using the 10 for $10.00 each plus 4 free Insiders special. Considering what I paid for these, I think they would bring me a whole lot more once slabbed and worth it to do so. Especially if they grade out high, which I think most will. Just curious.
I have two "Cheerios" sealed cents to send in also to round out the order, hoping they may be the 1999P WAM.