I post often to VAMworld but I am new here. I have put up a web site that is purely educational and grows almost daily. While targeted very narrowly at the 1881-O Morgan we do offer a lot of other data on collecting Morgans and VAMing. There are roughly 670+ coins on the site now; all documented, PCGS graded, photographed, and professionally VAMed. Every VAM and die is cross referenced to make study easy. We hold the majority of all coins below AU grades, and from AU50 up we hold no less than 1% of each PCGS graded coins up to MS65DMPL. Right now we are saving our pennies to work on the last two grades. By the end of the year the inventory should approach 850 coins. If you want to study grading we have 670+ examples laid out side-by-side. If you want to study VAMs then there are detailed explanations for every VAM. During the course of the study we have discovered 20 new VAMs for this series and the collection includes 90% of the identified VAMs for the 1881-O. The site now has about 6,000 high quality images for study. We also isolate toned coins for a separate view and do some explosions of regions of color so you can see the progression and range of colors. There are 82 toned coins with separate discussions. The toning ranges from barely detectable to highly collectible but all have something to teach us about Mint storage and/or exposure. Each month we also do a little side trip into some aspect of VAMing, the 1881-O, New Orleans history, or history in general. 1881 was a very interesting year in our Nation's history as the South emerged from Reconstruction. We have even identified all the Mint employees by name and to the extent possible traced their lineage so we know some of the interpersonal happenings at the Mint. From my background I tried to treat this as I would have in my working days and intentionally built in a lot of constraints. The site only has coins we own and we do not accept pictures or other data to post to the site. This gives us the luxury of actually pulling a coin or groups of coins for study without having to figure out who has one. All coins are PCGS graded to eliminate discussions about which service does what. All coins are photographed by VSS, so we have eliminated any discussion about the differences in photography. The VAM of every coin is verified by VSS and labeled before any coin is added to the site. And last but not least, any coin we feel might offer something new in the way of a discovery is verified by Leroy Van Allen. If you get a chance check out the site, come back often, and pass along the link to others that might benefit. http://www.1881o.com
And the body of knowledge about 1881-O Morgan dollar VAMs has become much bigger and, more importantly, more accurate, as a result of this project.
Lots of great reading material appreciate you sharing! Don't know much about the 81-O but find it interesting how common and affordable it is through 64 and how it shoots up exponentially in price after that. Also no 67 examples have been graded?
Man, ill bet Leroy and George wouldve laughed @ you, if you told them 30 years ago that someone would put so much research into '81O. Im still kind of curious why THIS particular date has garnered so much attention from you? To me, 80o 83o or even 04o would make better candidates for such a project. With that said, I LOVE what youve done and hope that you guys one day, move on to another date/mm and do the same> '21p anyone? Superdave im lookin at you buddy
Thanks for the comments. It is fun and pushes me to continue to research for new material, which is a healthy thing in retirement. Keeping your brain in gear is important at any age. I had a friend recommend the 81-O to me for a number of reasons. I live in the South and the Civil War era has always been fascinating, especially the reconstruction era which is often overlooked. The 81-O is less expensive than many other Date/MM combinations, but not as common as the 81-S. This makes the price point for most coins affordable up to MS64DPML/MS65. From there on up it gets to hit the wallet as noted by IBetASilverDollar. But this is true for all Morgans at some grade. For the 81-O date issues are the most dominant trait, so below Fine grades determination is hard. When we find one it gets a real place of prominence. Another attraction is that New Orleans is one of the most unusual places in the US. I have only visited a few times and you see things there that exist no where else in the US. My research led me one month into an analysis of the Mint, employees, and environmental conditions. That proved educational for me and hopefully for others. If you want to feel thankful for modern conveniences read the page on challenges of removal of horse manure. For me these slight side trips are important because the political and environmental conditions have a great impact on working conditions and coin quality. I also believe coin collecting needs a broader audience and factoring in more than just the little round silver disk hopefully makes it more appealing.
Well we just posted our April update and we are between major submissions. So we took a side trip on a steamer to better understand the life and times of Mint employees. http://www.1881o.com/home.html Life was not always painful in the New Orleans heat. We also finished and noted two numismatic books and a little insight into three recently added toned Morgans. Enjoy.
Great site HawkEye. I saved to my favorites when you posted it on VAMworld last November. What a great study on '81-O'!
Maybe one of you can offer advice on my raw 1878 Cc Morgan that I just received back from NCG for grading and VAM evaluation. It has an asymmetrical ''Cc'' mint mark. It came back AU-53 with the following note: not attributed b/c not top 100,hot 50 or hitlist 40. Does this mean my coin is a unique one-of-a-kind for which no category exists yet? Or, does it mean it is so common it does not warrant its own category? Thanks in advance for your advice.
It only means your Morgan VAM is not on any of the popularity lists they mentioned. You'll want to send it to @messydesk if you want it attributed on the NCG holder. http://www.varslab.com/
It means NGC only attributes the VAMs they feel like attributing. Be of good cheer; they aren't very good at the ones they do attribute.
After seeing pictures that were e-mailed to me, this is the reverse of VAM 19.1 and 19.2. I'd have to see the obverse to know which, but the markers for each is shown on VAMWorld. Both are more common than rare, but neither is super-common.
