I bought a 1921 dollar VAM 3o3 Goldfish graded MS65 by NGC but it has what looks like a large gash going across the lower torso of the eagle. Is this gash by itself enough to lower the grade down to at least an MS64+? I suspect maybe the graders either thought the coin is rather attractive looking so they overlooked the damage to the eagle or maybe it is a strike-through although when I look at the eagle it looks too rough to be a strike-through.
I would have GTG'ed 64 on this one. The pictures alone can't convince me this is a 65. (Standard grading-by-web-photos disclaimers apply, of course.) This variety, which is a pretty darn cool one, often has really frosty luster, which may have bumped the grade.
I sure hope those scratches on the obverse are on the holder and not the coin. Looks like the area around the bonnet has been whizzed, which would make this a Morgan in a counterfeit holder.
The scratches you are seeing are die scratches which are from the dies of the coin when the dies were polished and did not happen after the coin was minted. They can be quite attractive when the coin is tilted and they light-up. The die scratches are a characteristic of the Gold Fish VAM.
I thought the same thing about the grade when I saw the coin but the coin did not cost a lot of money which is why I bought it.
I bought online this coin for $137 what I hoped would be a late-die state for a 1921D VAM 2B in MS64 but when seen in person it is only a mid-die state. I am thinking of returning it to free up the money to buy other coins but even though it is only a mid-die state the die cracks still seem pretty impressive compared to some other coins that are late-die states and I think I got good value for the coin which is rather attactive. I know the late-die state is hard to find but do you know if this coin is still hard to find in a mid-die state or is it very common?
Look at the die polish line on the left side of the obv, they stop at Liberty’s nose and continue right under her chin. Cleaning hairlines would have crossed her face and devices such as stars, legends, etc... a whizzed coin would have received a “details” grade. I am not sure why you mentioned a counterfeit holder.
Demand for (and premiums on) die break VAMs are typically for the later die stages where chunks of die are missing. Some people might be interested in this die stage, but most will want the later one. As for whether this coin is easy or hard to find, there are a couple hundred die pairs for 21-D, so statistically any specific die pair is going to take work to find.
I don't see how that coin you have is MS 65. The deep cut on the reverse of the lower of the eagle. More like MS 64 +
Hi, again, I would appreciate if you could answer a couple of questions about a coin that I have bought. I bought this coin show below because I thought it was a 1921D VAM 1K2 but I think it may be a VAM 1K3 since VAMWorld says there is a die break coming from the third star and there is a displaced field betwen the two die breaks both of which my coin has. However, I am not absolutely sure my coin is a VAM 1K3 since there are no pictures on VAMWorld for this particular VAM. Do you know if my coin is a VAM 1K3 and did VAMWorld make a mistake in giving this coin a rarity of only a 5 since the later die state is usually rarer and harder to find? I paid $260 for the coin but if it has a rarity of only a 5 I will probably return the coin. Thanks.
