Got these back today. Four new VAMs... two Peace dollars and two Morgans. Also shows one revised coin due to a later die state.
Wow, congrats!! :thumb: :thumb: Beginners question: On the 1923 P 1AO, how do they know that isn't post-mint damage? I would have just thought it was a deep scratch, but then again, I don't identify VAMS.
You are the king of Vams Congratulations. You are the kind of collector that makes collecting fun and an inspiration to those of us that find Vams so interesting and collectible.
Dumb question What does "VAM" stand for? What is the deal with the funny names for them? I take it that it has to do with variant Morgans and Peace Dollars. Are these published in a book? On a web site?
Thanks everyone! I think I've gotten a little obsessed and may need to slow down.... at least that's what my wife is telling me. VAM stands for the initials of the two authors of the "VAM Book" (Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan and Peace Dollars).... Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis. It identifies the different die pairs that were used... and also different die states with significant differences in the original die pair. All Morgan and Peace dollars are VAMs. The last printing of the book is the 4th edition. There are updates available that are almost as thick as the book! My favorite sites... http://www.ashmore.com/vamupdate/index.htm http://www.rjrc.com/
You too, eh? I've just about completely shifted my focus to '21 VAMs, partly as a way to control my buying tendacies and partly because I think it's a growth industry looking forward. Sometime soon I'm going to be starting what I hope to be a semi-perpetual VAM thread in the Error section, with my first dozen or so acquisitions.
This is what i don't understand. They punched out 100's of MILLIONS these coins and these dies don't last that long. And do we know that matched dies always ran together? The permutations are in the billions. How many coins can a single die produce? Ruben
The answer to your questions tends to illustrate the degree of obsession some collectors invest into their work. As a guess, 50k coins is a good life for a die. Dies are, as a result, switched around and variously matched over their lifetimes. Collectors like Van Allen and Mallis looked at thousands upon thousands of coins during the process which culminated in the publication of the Comprehensive Encyclopedia. They noted the sometimes-microscopic differences which characterized specific dies, and cataloged the combinations thus identified. Although I don't know about "billions," the number of potential permutations is certainly right up there. The number of additional VAMs identified just since the 4th Edition was published in 1998 (IIRC) probably equals the total number identified in the book. That's why the efforts of people like nesvt are ongoing - in no way have all the potential errors been found, nor will they be in the forseeable future. There are people all over the country, like me, poring over their coins under serious magnification for hours at a time, looking for previously-unidentified errors.
Thanks SuperDave! Great explanation. Not sure about the use of the word "errors". I remember getting into a conversation about which forum VAM posts belong. I believe I ended up moving my posts from Errors to US Coins. The Red Book of Morgan Silver Dollars by Bowers gives some die numbers. For example, the 1879-P... "Made for coinage were 129 obverse dies and 86 reverse dies, although it is not known if all were used." Circulation strike mintage was 14,806,000.
hey, that's not a single word.... but it sounds pretty good. I don't know what term is best, just remember bouncing around between the two forums. I think VAMs include both. A gouge in a die that leaves a line across Liberty's head (like the 21-S Thornheads) seem like a "departure". Accidentally using the "O" mint mark that should have gone on a quarter (micro O), or putting the "O" horizontal instead of vertical, or punching the wrong date... seem like errors to me.
