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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;bzcollektor, post: 65198, member: 3241&quot;]I will expand a little on my previous post concerning the 1878 7/8 varieties, as these are my favorite Morgans.&nbsp; Vams 30 through 45 are generally considered the 7/8 varieties. Vams 30, 31, and 45 have no extra tailfeathers showing.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;You might ask how these are considered 7/8 varieties. The mint originally minted a run of about 750,000 8 tailfeather design. When it was brought to the attention of mint officials that eagles could only have an odd number of tailfeathers, it was decided to modify the design on the reverse to a 7 tailfeather design. Why they cared is anybodies guess, they could have claimed artistic license. In any case, the mint was under tremendous pressure to coin massive quantities of silver into dollars as mandated by the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. As it took several days, and 7-10 blows from a master hub to impress a working die, it was decided to expedite the process by re-hubbing the 8 tailfeather working dies on hand with the newer 7 tailfeather hubs. This procedure took less time than hubbing 7 TF dies from scratch. They tried polishing off the resulting remains of 8 TF showing under the 7 TF of these re-hubbed 8TF dies with varying success.&nbsp; Some of these (Vams 30, 31, and 45) show no extra tailfeathers, but with doubled legs and talons on the eagle. Some, like Vam 42, show 7 TF remaining. The fact that these are a <b>7</b>TF design rehubbed (impressed) over an origianal <b>8</b>TF die are why these are called 7/8 varieties, no matter how many tailfeathers, if any, are showing. Vams 30~45 are all considered 7/8 varieties.</p><p><br /></p><p>NGC has tried to clear up this confusion by attributing <i>how many</i> TF out of a possible 7 are showing. A Vam 33 for instance, can have either 3, or 4 TF showing. NGC will label a Vam 33 as either 7/3 TF, or a 7/4 TF. A Vam 30, or 31, which has no underlying TF will be a 7/0 TF. A Vam 42 with all 7 possible TF showing, will be labeled 7/7 TF. Apparently the 8th tailfeather is always completely overstuck (not visable), hence a total possible 7TF showing. The mint eventually hubbed enough 7TF only dies, that when these became available, the re-hubbed 7TF over 8TF dies were discontinued. It is generally accepted that about 750,000 of the various 7/8TF varieties were struck.</p><p><br /></p><p>Bruce[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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