I was weeding through some of my Morgan slabs and came across this 1902-O. It is a MS-64 in an NGC holder. The space between the lower curve and the bottom of the 2 is filled with a big ole die chip (is my guess). I didn't find anything on Vamworld.com about it, and don't know if it qualifies as a VAM or if it is just an error. Any ideas? What value might something like this have if anyone has any imput. Thanks, George
All Morgans are VAMs, VAM1 usually refers to the "normal" die variety. My first though was it was a die chip (error) on the 2, but VAM1 says the base of the 2 is sometimes found filled in. So I would say it's not an error, it's a common variety, and it's the VAM1 Closed 9 variety VAMworld - 1902-O VAM-1 *One more thing with only that one pic, I can only say it's the closed 9 variety, there are a few VAMs with the closed 9 VAM1 obverse. So it can be any of the VAMs with the lll2 l obverse.
If you want, post some large pics of the obv and rev. It can be one of these VAMs (1,6,11,24,37,27,32,39), based of the closed 9 variety. Btw none of these VAMs are on the hit list, top 100, or hot 50, so I doubt they would bring a premium.
It does appear that the 9 is closed rather than open, but it is fuzzy enough for me to say I can't tell. The filled "2" also occurs with the 1902-S , in almost exact same shape, so it probably isn't a die chip, unless it is one of those weird coincidences to affect obverse dies of both mints. Possibly damage/breakage on the hubbing die?, as I believe Phila. made the dies for the branch mints. Jim
VAM comes from the Van Allen and Mallis "Comprehensive Catalogue and Encyclopedia of U.S. Morgan and Peace Silver Dollars". Which is a catalogue of the obverse and reverse die combination of these dollars. Each Dollar has only a single VAM number, but may be expanded with suffixes if other markers occur during the length of production of the dollars. If either die is exchanged for a different one, the new combination is a new VAM. Jim
Yes Philadelphia did make the dies for the branch mints but at that time the dates were still being added to the individual dies by hand with a four digit logotype punch. The mint had been having troubles with that style of 2 since at least 1882 (Possibly even 62 and 72) and coins of 82, 92, and 02 can all be found with the 2 filled in like that. Since this same type of "filled 2" appears across many years and different sizes of dates, I would be more inclined to attribute the damage to chipping of the dies than damage to the punch. Especially since these same dates also come with clearly formed 2's which would mean both good and bad date punches for the same year. (You can't damage a date punch and create the filled 2, the punch would have to be created from a damaged matrix. And since over the years different sizes of date have the same problem that would mean several damaged and good date matrixes for creating punches.)
Thank you for all the input. I leaned toward a die chip myself. I will check out the reverse a bit better, although nothing stands out as I have checked the usual suspect places for irregularities. George
