does EVERY morgan dollar have a vam designation? if i can't find it as a specific vam does that make it the normal die state? thank you for your help and patience with my questions.....steve
Steve, not every morgan has a vam designation. There are still many (I presume) undiscovered Vams. I'm not 100% sure about the answer to your other questions. You might be able to a good answer from our member nevst. He is a wonderful cherrypicker and is very knowledgeable about vams.
Thanks zaneman. The best thing for me is that there is something new to learn every day. Steve, like zaneman said, there are still undiscovered VAMs out there. Hundreds of new ones were discovered in 2006 alone. Morgan and Peace dollars are given a VAM designation to identify the die pairing and die state. All Morgan and Peace dollars are VAMs. Some have been identified and some have not. Usually VAM 1 is given to the common die pairing for the year/mint. For a complete (and better definition), check out VAMworld.
thank you for your help. i wasn't thinking i had discovered a new vam but was a little frustrated i couldn't id any vam...just starting so i had only tried 2 coins but couldn't find any special designation on them. just guessing that makes it a normal die state. i am going thru what few i have but will learn more as i go along. did pick up a very cool looking 84 morgan which has interesting die cracks...a few actually. its very pretty ms63. going to get a digital camera soon so i hope to share pics w/ you all...thank you again for your help...
HEres a good question. How do you know you have found a new vam? Alsoi if you do. How do you claim a van ID for it?
Of all the VAM collectors that I know and communicate with, I am the least knowledgeable. Just want to put this into perspective so you can "consider the source" of this information. I'm up to about 30 new discoveries (Peace and Morgan). Here's what I do... I check the VAM book and the supplemental updates. The updates come out each year. The VAM book probably has HALF of the known VAMs in it... plus MANY have been eliminated or revised. If I don't find one that matches, I search the online resources. Some of these are redundant to the printed material, but I still check. These include the ashmore site, VAMworld, and Rob Joyce's older site. There are others as well. If I still can't find a match, I post images on one or two websites and ask for help. If I don't get any replies, I assume folks didn't see the note or don't recognize the variety... so I reply to the thread myself to push it back to the top and get a little more visibility. The last step is to send it to Leroy Van Allen. Some folks email him first, but I feel I've exhausted all resources and send him the coin. I include a note describing the coin and funds to cover the return S&H&I and a little of his time. Leroy's address and the list of the updates can be found here.
