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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;raider34, post: 925869, member: 16402&quot;]Tom&#039;s exactly right, VAMworld also lists a definition: <a href="http://www.vamworld.com/VAM" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.vamworld.com/VAM" rel="nofollow">VAMworld - VAM</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Attributing VAMs can become tedious, imo for 99% of VAMs your eye, or a 5-10x loupe is enough. I think one of the most important things to do is break everything down. For example take the &#039;78 P 7 tail feather VAMs, if you just look at it as a whole, it may seem impossible to attribute your coin out of 200+ varieties. </p><p><br /></p><p>So you start to break it down (going by the VAMworld list): <a href="http://www.vamworld.com/1878-P+VAMs" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.vamworld.com/1878-P+VAMs" rel="nofollow">VAMworld - 1878-P VAMs</a> First make sure to check if it&#039;s a 7/8 tf. If it&#039;s not, is it the Parallel or Slanted arrow feather variety? If it&#039;s the parallel, is it the long nock or short nock variety? If it&#039;s the short nock, is the o in God open, or is the r in trust broken, or is the D in Dollars broken? All of these things are pretty easy to spot with the naked eye, and by numbering it down, it makes the number of potential matches much lower, therefore making it easier to attribute. </p><p><br /></p><p>For other VAMs usually I take a quick look at the coin and see if anything really stands out (die breaks, clashes in certain areas, major die cracks ect...). If nothing stands out, check the date positioning (either very near, near, normal, far, very far), then check the mint mark positioning (if there is one), this will help number down the possible VAMs. If your trying to attribute VAMs I strongly recommend reading this link, if you haven&#039;t done so already: <a href="http://www.vamworld.com/Attribution+101" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.vamworld.com/Attribution+101" rel="nofollow"> Attribution 101</a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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