The King is dead. Long live the King.

As some may know, I'm a little freaky on 1921 Morgans. They get very little respect, given their massive mintages, but they abound with fascinating examples of all the things which can go wrong with dies during production. The most famous of them is the 1921-D VAM-1X, an amazing cud coin with part of the die literally broken off and missing:



Only one is known, and it's reasonable to expect another is highly unlikely. It's the King of 1921's.

Until now. Gentle Readers, behold the new 1921-D VAM-1H4:



The fact that it hasn't been found until just recently throws the door open to who knows what potential for the future. The King is dead. Long live the King.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Wow.

 

Sorry but this reminded of a George Jones song

 

Bet it was found in an unsearched ebay roll or jar

Time to let the cat out of the mint bag huh dave

I'm still amazed! For vam guys, especially the fun with 21 types, this is like the 1919 find for Merc & dd guys. Report back if you hear of a second being unearthed somehow. How in the bejesus did this baby elude capture for so long!?

 

We knew about it, Leroy has now had it and officially designated it. That's why I waited until now to post it, for Leroy to make it official.

This is bigger than the 1919 Merc, bigger than Bryan1315's new 1878 B1 Reverse from a few years back. To me - I'm biased, of course - it's the biggest cannonball into the VAM pool ever.

 

neat item.

 

Dave, I pondered posting this exact same vam the other day (didn't think it would garner much interest here).... What a find!!! An R-7 w only 1 known example wow!!! Even more interesting is the letter Leroy typed to the submitter explaining how they used digital calipers and an overlay with computer imaging to determine this cud was bigger than the Vam 1x....This is on the Vam 1h4 page at Vamworld if anyone is interested.
Thanx 4 reminding me of this most exciting find and new King of cuds

 

I've owned a couple of the previous "LDS" versions - 1H3 - and this one differs at the point of the neck. 1H3's rim involvement there is a near-radial line, like so:



1H4 has a cutback there, an additional break. To me, that implies the possibility of a coin between 1H3 and 1H4. Better get to lookin'.

 

Oh I will definitely be on the lookout! I have always wondered who will take over after (god forbid) Leroy is too old to look at coins anymore. Will the known Vams just be the end of it? No new ones from there on out or will another person take over and assign new Vam #s as they are discovered?

 

There's an existing hierarchy of top-level VAMmers - John Roberts, John Baumgartner, others - whose qualifications to determine new varieties nobody would question. It may be a committee, it may be a single guy with a Cabinet of advisors, but the task will continue. I'm not in their league, and not privy to that.

 

I just assumed it would be one of those guys you mentioned but, didn't know how they would get elected or if they would want to take on such a job. I've met Mr Roberts, and he took one look at the obverse side of my coin and said no, that's not (the one), I was thinking WOW this guy is an encyclopedia! Especially being that the reverse of the coin was the area I was questioning him about on my Morgan.I can remember markers on maybe a handful of vams and I'm still floored by Mr Roberts memory! Obviously Mr Baumgart has to be mentioned in the same breath when it comes to Vamming

 

You know dave, Leroy just came out with the 2015 update. I wonder if this one made it in?

 

My theory is that "responsibility" will devolve to SSDC (John Baumgart is SSDC President), and they will create an ad hoc committee composed of major players who will name new VAMs by consensus. Whatever happens, there is no way VAMming stops with Leroy Van Allen. As we speak, people are literally devoting their numismatic careers to specific issues. I'd be doing that if I had the resources.

 

Did you all know that all 1921 Mogans have a single berry in the upper-right leaf cluster while all other Morgans have two berries there?

 

Quick, call a doctor...........

 

Well that's close, but not quite, my long tailed friend. Not ALL '21 Morgan's have a single berry in the upper right leaf cluster. SOME (I'll call it 10%) of the 1921 Philadelphia coins have 17 berries in the wreath, as opposed to 16........1921 D&S MM coins are all 16 berry. If you do run across a '21 P with the 17 berries, make sure to check the 3rd side for the wide reed variety. There is a premium for these in UNC....

 

I can never sell any of my Morgans -- too afraid I'll miss a rare VAM.

 

I immediately thought of you Dave when I saw this posted over on VAMworld.

 

Who doesn't lol. Sometimes at shows or lcs's when I'm in the mood to look at 21's I say "got any SuperDave's"