1878 Morgan - can you help me ID the VAM?

I picked this up the other day, and think it is a clear 7 feathers variety. But I'm less sure of the VAM. Where do you start on ID'ing the VAMs for 1878 (p)? There's a little hyphen under the 1.

 

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Great photos George.

 

A full coin obverse and reverse image would be a good start.

 

Here are a few of the things that stand out to me. The mintmark seems to have a diagonal strike through the loop. And there's a strange dimple on the upper-left serif of the "iN god", and there are doubled denticles above the R in "pluRibus".

 

Lets stick with the 1878 - Its more interesting

 

After confirming the number of tail feathers I would first look at the arrow feathers and nocks first to determine which reverse you have

 

Yes, let's. Start with the arrow feathers -- parallel or slanted top feather? Then check for long nock (70-86) or short nock (100-198), assuming parallel arrow feathers. If short nock, look at the 'o' in God and the 'r' in trust to see if there's a hub break on either or both. This is how the 7TFs are divided up on the 1878 page on VAMWorld. I also think that if you look at the letters PLUR, you'll find much more interesting stuff. There's no dash under the 1, but there's a notch near the top right. This occurs on a few different varieties.

 

Confusing post... Good luck

 

Yes, the slanted feather is the rev. of 79 and has only 5 VAMs listed at VAM World....but they are highly sought cherrypicks.
...Spark

 

Sorry - switching between phone pics and the laptop, I seem to have gotten 2 coins mixed. I'll try again and see if I can get this right.

 

You are not alone, attributing VAMs is one whole new learning curve. You are basically trying to tie a particular die pair (or die stage of that pair) to your coin

 

It looks like parallel feathers on the fletching. How do I judge the length of the nock?



There's also what appears to be a repunched R and U on the "E PluRibUS"

 

The doubled R and almost all of the date chips look like VAM113, but there's no flake on the cheek. Also, I noticed what seems to be doubling along the neckline?

http://ec2-13-58-222-16.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com/wiki/1878-P_VAM-113

 

@GeorgeM ...yes, parallel feathers and a very short, almost non-existant nock. The nock is at the very center, left end of the arrows. Compare with the long nock listings at VAM World and it will become clear.

But it is check one VAM, determine if the attribute is present or not and go on to the next one. It isn’t easy and you have to be persistent and have lots of patience. The more you do the more experienced you become and the better you get at it. Good luck...Spark

 

Ah the nock - where the arrow fits onto the bowstring. Got it now.

 

@GeorgeM ...when I said 5 I was thinking of the 1878 Morgan I found at a flea market last month. It is a slanted arrow feather (SAF) Rev. of 79, with a C2 reverse, meaning...it has a thin, longer feather feature rather than a rounded or squared feather, and only 5 VAMs are listed. It turns out it was VAM 210B1. Picked it up for 54 bucks. Matched it at PCGS at MS63...NGC Price Guide lists it at $310 right now regardless of the VAM ( line through IB/LIBERTY). Had to go with the B1 since I could not see any clashing indicated for the B2.

So...this should give you an insight into the process of determining VAMs...ya gotta just hammer away and match what ya got!...Cheers!...Spark

 

The 1878 page on VAMWorld is a bit daunting, but it's organized by several high-level attributes, and some of the upper-level sections have links to additional attribution resources. Take a look at this page and let me know where there is confusion as to how to use it. I spent a little time yesterday cleaning it up a little so that the sections were more obvious and also indexed in the table of contents at the top of the page.