New-Looking for opinions-1921 Morgan Dollar?

Discussion in 'US Coins Forum' started by Jupiter88, Aug 21, 2015.

  1. SuperDave

    SuperDave Free the Cartwheels!

    For reasons unknown as of yet, during the mintage of 1921's workers etched normally-curved "scribbles" (for lack of a better term) into reverse dies around the eagle's right leg. They were "discovered" in 2006ish and Leroy has been using them to designate die pairs since. They're as good as die cracks as "fingerprints" for a die pair. We call them "Scribbling Scratches."

    Which brings me to my frustration with this coin - the die crack through the (viewer's) left of the wreath is uncommon enough for 1921-P that it ought to be a smoking gun attribute, or near. Unfortunately, we don't yet have a solid enough database of such things for it to be a viable pickup except in front of someone who already knows the VAM.

    It's a terrific strike for a 1921, especially the obverse. You rarely see the cotton bolls so complete. I worry, as others have, about how knocked-around it looks. It certainly isn't well up the value scale, even if adjudicated Mint State and marks of that type argue against an Uncirculated coin.
     
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  3. messydesk

    messydesk Well-Known Member

    The reason is most likely to make up for weakness at the die there, although there are some known with scribble scratches that don't seem to be weakly detailed dies in that area.
    I occasionally apologize for bringing that to Leroy's attention with the 1921-D VAM 1BY, which I refer to as "patient zero" of scribble scratches, but had I not, someone else would have.

    Based on the new pics, I'd grade the coin no better than AU58.
     
  4. jgrinz

    jgrinz Senior Member

    If you want to identify your coin you need a little more visual power to identify the scratches squiggles and die markers. It took a lot of leg work and pictures and a lot of research to find I have a so called Zerbie die obv/reverse 17 berry hub coin that is also an EDS coin ( Has no cracks ) because mine is slightly different having no cracks it was throwing us off the correct path. Mine is a VAM-1AG EDS
    This long winded affair with about 20 pics is over at VAMWORLD if you so want to read.
    http://www.vamworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3011

    The guys there will help you at least trim the amount of vams you need to look at.
    Have fun.
     
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