Any advanced VAM collectors frequent these boards? This is a VAM 1A Donkey tail reverse... Which is listed as a high R6 low R7 VAM. The reverse matches to a T. The obverse however does not match completely. You can see what looks like some recutting in the 1. I can't find this listed in any books or on vamworld. Might I have a new one?
The VAM-1A was replaced by VAM-25A, but it was left on the list for historical purposes. There is no donkey tail on the VAM-25, and as you can see, the die crack running along the bottom of the "DO" on your coin is much shorter than the one shown in the plate photo of the VAM-25A. Therefore, your coin would be a transition piece somewhere between the 25 & 25A. The fact that it appears to have some doubling on the date might suggest that a different obverse die was paired with it, but that is just a guess on my part. If you sent this to Leroy Van Allen for the attribution, it's possible they may have to change them to 25, 25A & 25B. Chris
I might have to do that. This coin is strange. I'm trying to figure out how those marks on the 1 could be PMD and rule this out as being something new... but it definitely looks like it was made that way.
If you do decide to send it to LVA, be sure to list all of your concerns as completely as possible, to include the date and the length of the die crack. Otherwise, he will just ignore anything you haven't mentioned. Chris
If you were a one-man operation, in your 70's and received hundreds of coins every week, you would probably do the same. I wonder how many times he has received a Morgan dollar with a note enclosed with nothing more than, "What is this?" on it. If it had been me, I would have been tempted to return it with the comment, "It's a Morgan dollar!". Chris
That is a very good point... and a good tip to anyone sending anything in for attribution. Try to make it easier on the one doing the attribution.
The upper portion of the one looks like PMD to me. I've seen a number examples that look just like that on the date, and it also happens on the stars. If you look on the first 8 at the top it appears to have a hit that creates a similar affect, the same with the tip of the star to the left of the one. But the 2 lines you pointed out on the sides don't look like PMD, don't really know could have caused them. Some random examples I found on VAMworld: VAMworld - 1886-P VAM-6 (on the 6) VAMworld - 1886-O VAM-14 (on the 1).
