any vam enthusiasts?????

hey guys, this is my first post here and i hope someone here may be able to help me out. i am trying to attribute a 1882 cc morgan in a sa holder i recently purchased, i cant find it on either the top 100 or hot 50 lists,but it has such dramatic die varieties that it must be listed somewhere,i will try and give a full run down of the key features and perhaps it will ring a bell with someone here,

obverse
the main feature of the obvers is dramatic doubling of the upper lip profile,along with a doubling shadow between the lip and nose giving the appearance of a sort of moustache,

reverse
heres where it really gets crazy but i will try to list it all however there may be some details i miss.
doubling of the cc mint mark
doubling of first and third tailfeathers from left on the tips.
some doubling of dollar
doubling of o and e in one
doubling of stars
doubling of america
some doubling of in god we trust
quadrupled die clash marks between right wing and laurel wreath
doubling of edges of laurel wreath

well i think that is most of it i would say the most significant keys would be the doubled lips and tailfeathers they are very dramatic and can be seen with the naked eye.

if anybody can help me attribute this dollar with a vam # or tell me who i could contact about this if it is an unrecognised variety it would be greatly appreaciated,also if anyone has an idea of its current value that would be great also,my best guess would be a ms 64,does anyone grade these and attribute vam#s still in the gsa holder???

well thanks in advance for any help.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

wow thanks for the fast reply and the warm welcome, it's good to be here.

 

Welcome to the forum,

I looked for the variety you are describing, and come up a bit short.
Here is what I found for you.

Breen encyclopedia:

5570: 1882-CC Doubled rev die. Presently rare. Not in VAM. Doubling plainest on legend.

That is all the info on that Breen number.


This Morgan referrence can be found on page 452 of the Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of US and Colonial Coins.

 

One more thought. If this is indeed a doubled die reverse, authentication should be done. Now comes the problem. Since this is not a VAM listed variety at date, the grading services may not list it on the holder. So do some good research and call the big four grading services.

 

I am friends with one of the foremost vam people in the country. If you can post clear closeup scans I will forward them to him and perhaps be able to help attribute this.

 

hey guys thanks for the replies,i dont have a scanner but i do have a 4 mega pixel digi cam with macro feature, i will give that a try today,and post the results if they are presentable.
at the moment i dont know wether to be more excited if it were a new discovery or to hope that it can be attributed,but either way this coin is definitely what collectin is all about for me as a relative noob to the hobby,it's just good fun trying to figure it out,
thanks for helping me.

 

Well you have a good eye for a relative newbie. Most VAM dollars are not discovered by most collectors. I wish you the best of luck.

 

thanks ,i just really enjoy looking at my coins,to be honest i originally got into this about 2 months ago as a way to invest some money in something i had some interest in,and invest some money i have lol.but i no longer look at it from that point of veiw,i now just like the coins,and in particulat like to try and find unusual aspects of the coins i own,so i spend alot of time looking at them.
i guess it doesnt hurt that i dont have a huge collection,so i have less than 200 coins to spend my hours ogling.
any how enough of my biography,im sure you guys have seen em come and seen em go,
i did however manage to get some decent pics,so if some one wants to check em out hit me with an email addy,or enlightem me as to how to post em here and i will be happy to comply.although im not sure the forum would support the resoloution nessicary to really see things well.
anyhow thanks again for the help.

 

pix

heres an attempt at loading some pix

apparently a fairly unsuccessful one haha

 

I just dropped you a private message, so check there. Hopefully that will help. You can always send me the pics in jpeg format.

 

hey nd i sent a couple of pix to ya i will have to send more later as thats the max attachment size my mail server allows.
as a side note i found yet another oddity on this coin,on the obverse there is something sticking out from under the bulge of libertys cap on the back side parallel to where the the space between the m and the star are in e plurbis unum it looks like one side of an o mint mark in shape and size and is visible to the naked eye.
the more i study this coin the more i love it .

 

Lets see how well your pics show up.

 

yeah thats what i was afraid of you cant see much in those pics when they are reduced.in the first one you can see a hint of the doubling on america but not much.
i will try useing an editing program tonite to crop out the key areas and just enlarge then so detail shows better, thanks for helping though, ill try and send more than 2 pix this time alsothose were just so big my server couldnt handle many.

 

ok i think i got the pic thing down now i guess we will se if the attachments went through this time, hopefully the details will be evident in some of these,this is my first attempt at coin photography and man it's tough,things just dont show up unless the light hits it just right.oh well hopefully these will come out better.

 

more pics some are of the same things from diffrent angles and what not

 

Well I would certainly have a grading company take a look at this coin. Before submitting it, call the company to see if they will attribute it. Use the Breen number 5570
Since this is not currently VAM attributed, you may have some difficulty in getting it slabbed correctly. So take some time and call each of the big four services PCGS, NGC, Anacs, IGC. Maybe you will get lucky. If not, hold onto the coin. Do not clean it or handle it unnecessarily.
Nice find sir!

 

thanks for the breen # national dealer.i will call around and see if anyone will grade it with that notation.will anyone besides ngc grade a morgan without cracking out of the govt issue holder?because i would really like to leave this one in the original gsa holder if possible.

thanks again for all your help,does the breen book say anything about the rarity of this variety?would it carry a premium?
i dont have any intention of selling it but it would still be nice to know.

 

Oh, that is a whole different issue all together. NGC is currently the only one that I am aware of that still leaves the GSA holder in tact.
If you can take it to a larger coin show, you may get the grader to have a quick look at the coin. If they agree that it falls into the Breen listing, it would be worth cracking it out of the GSA holder to get it slabbed with that notation. If they do not agree, leave it in the holder.
That is just a question you will have to ask each service.

 

thanks again for all the help,you have been very kind to have taken time out of your day to help me and i do appreaciate it much.