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Message:: [QUOTE="scottishmoney, post: 2641499, member: 12789"]The coin is all the more interesting to me because it appears to be an 1896-O micro-O variety, VAM-4 which accd to PCGS, NGC et al is not of US mint origin - but imminently more collectable if indeed it is a VAM-4.  I have a VAM-4 myself and can image it later for comparison - but so far with the somewhat fuzzy pictures above it does indeed appear to be one of them. It is conjectured that these coins were "privately" minted, ie counterfeited during the early 1930s and were tumbled in a tumbler to give them the appearance of having been circulated.  That would give them the appearance of legitimacy in circulation.  They were probably monetary counterfeits and not made to fool collectors, but rather to take advantage of using then about 25c worth of silver(silver was worth little during the depression) and make a coin worth a dollar. To myself and others like me, we find those "privately" made coins a lot more interesting than the ones cranked out of the US mint.  Just think that someone made these over 80+ years ago and successfully filtered them into circulation, and the coins were not determined to be not of US mint origin for over 70+ years and the perpetrator or perpetrators have never been identified and probably never will be.[/QUOTE]