I just thought id ask you all. How do you ID your variety coins if you dont know what it is for sure? For instance, those of you that are into the Morgans. What do you do when you cant ID what Morgan's you have? Whats the best book or web site I should have or check that I dont already own or as web sites go know about? I have been useing vamworld to try and ID the ones I have. I have a good number of RAW morgans and I am having a heck of a time marking them correctly. I was going to post a nice pic I have of a 1881 S doubled 88 with a very fine die crack running between the 8s but Stupid photobucket is down for now. I will have to post a few pictures latter. Also I know im posting this in the US coins forum. Thats because the topic is more of a in general question. Oldman
You might want to buy a book or two on VAMs -- there are several on the topic, but I'm not enough of a specialist to recommend the "best" one, but I suspect it will be by Leroy Van Allen (i.e. the "vam" man). Here's a pretty good website on the topic you are asking about: http://68.209.172.223/vamupdate/index.htm (warning the page takes a while to load) Personally, I use books as my first source of information and online resources as secondary sources (for instance Heritage archives with their large pictures are invaluable). Hope this helps...Mike
The wealth of information available on the internet and reference books, Namely Bust Half Fever (Ed Souders) and the Overton Books. Take Care Ben
heres a part of the coin i was talking about, Its a 1881 S and the rest of the Morgan shown almost nothing else to help ID what vam it is. Yes I have a few vam books and if you read the first post, i use vamworld although its not a big help.
I'm looking at Breen's encyclopedia and he stated for the 1881-S "At least 22 minor vars., most with minor traces of repunching on date and/or S."
John B. at www.varslab.com would be the first one I would contact. If I was online then nesvt would be my first choice. He has found a TON of new varieties!! Speedy
