Okay, here's the skinny on this bad boy... I searched all 58 listed VAMs @VAM World and finally checked the VNA, VAM not assigned, and lo and behold my Morgan matched their clashing for their VNA. Here are the pics: Normal Date, Open 9, Large oval O, centered. No doubling of numerals or stars. 5 areas of clashing match the pic at VAM World for VNA, the most prominent on the reverse, the hair vee from the obverse to the right of the right eagle wing: My question is: Why has no VAM been assigned? The coin is 142 yo and is the first Morgan out of New Orleans. I posit that since there is no apparent doubling, the closest match is VAM 8, but that one does not account for the clashing...I look forward to your responses. @messydesk ...Spark
It is my guess that the "cap vee" clash, in and of itself, does not warrant the assignment of a VAM. I'm sure that John will be able to answer your question.
See VAM-2. It is the catch all for open 9. And clashed die events without letter transfer do not warrant a listing.
Well, I appreciate your response, and I kinda smell what you’re sellin’, but even a normal die pair, with no especial attribute, gets a VAM-1...and this holds true for almost all Morgan and Peace VAMS...Spark
Thanks a bunch. Here’s my take-a-way: It’s a VAM-2 because of the open 9, and should be a VAM-2A to account for the clashing. Then VAM World wouldn’t be sitting out there in limbo with a VNA for this year. I mean, come on, they have a VAM designation for a gnat’s whisker and everything else! Thanks everyone...Spark
The clash will not be listed as a distinct VAM (typically a subvariety of one) unless lettering is transferred from one side to the other. If there is no doubling on the date and this is the medium oval O, and there is nothing else of note, then this would be called VAM 2 (open 9). The "VNA" pages are kind of the wild west of VAMWorld. There are some pictures that are thrown up there without due diligence, some are unidentifiable, some just heavily worn, and they aren't moderated or proof-read at all. They also aren't monitored to see if eventually, as a result of a detailed study of all the dies of a particular date and mint, they came to be listed as something. They're "like a crazy aunt we keep down in the basement. All the neighbors know she's there, but nobody wants to talk about her." With the migration of the old VAMWorld to the new, all the timestamps on pages and files have been reset to August 2018, so it's not always possible to see how long they've been there. In the course of doing a die studies, some people have come across "VNA" coins in photos on auction archives or on CoinFacts. These are coins that don't match anything that has been cataloged, but can't be sent to Leroy, because the person doing the study doesn't have the coin. In this case, they represent die pairs that are opportunities to get a variety listed if an actual coin could be submitted for inspection. If someone were to do a die study of 1879-O for the purpose of cataloging every die that was used, your coin would eventually become listed as something, probably something like "VAM 2, Die 1", or VAM 2.1 for short. The next plain Jane 79-O Open 9, Medium O would be VAM 2, Die 2 (or VAM 2.2). This has been done for other VAMs where there are multiple die pairs that match the description, but they're just a touch different.
@messydesk ...thanks for the explanation. Nice to have a “go to” expert such as yourself to bounce questions. For the time being I am just keeping it’s label as VNA, one of my 2 sons will reclassify it when they own it, which will be quite soon. I’m pulling VAMs on all my Morgans and Peace and am accumulating other info/data as I go, and giving my collection to them after I organize each series. I have done VAM research on 20 Morgans or Peace in the past year and am accelerating my pace. Thanks again to all who responded. I hope others have a better understanding now, as I do...Spark
