A 20 minute video on 1881-O Morgans

messydesk

The January FUN show is the site of the annual VAM Thing. This year, I did a presentation on 1881-O varieties based on having attempted to attribute close to 1000 coins in one person's collection over time. For those who weren't able to attend VAM Thing XV back in January, and are wondering what the heck I could have to say about 1881-O Morgans for 20 minutes, there is a recording of the presentation I did on the Newman Numismatic Portal. It's about 20 minutes long and includes a shout-out to RogerB for his NARA spelunking. There's not a ton of pre-requisite VAM knowledge required to understand it, I hope.

https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/549219

Thanks to David Lisot for recording and putting it on the NNP.

jedm

I watched it and found it to be informative and interesting. I am not a specialist in any way in the dollar series, yet this whole VAM and die knowledge and identification discussion is still an interesting topic. I found the terminology was creative also with one die being described as promiscuous and even a "black widow" ….Thanks for posting the link.

Timbuk3

Thanks for sharing the information !!!

Hallco

@messydesk John. Please tell us that you have done one of these videos for EVERY Morgan date and they will be able to be viewed on the new Vamworld hosting site very soon, yes?

PocketArt

John, how was the "Hawkeye" collection assembled to where you could examine so many different 1881-O Morgan dollars? It must have been a collector focused on this particular date/mint? I can't imagine all these ending up in a mint bag from New Orleans on a given production day, week, so curious on accumulation of 1881-O's?

Also, I wanted to thank both you, and Roger Burdette for combining the synergy for this study, and the presentation you shared! Your field work with such a large cache of 1881-O's, and Roger's research into NARA mint records truly makes this not only informative; yet, unique. What a treasure to have two talents meet for this research. I'd hope more would be to come.

I'll look at my 1881-O's in a different light now; esp. for VAM-33B, and VAM-16.

Thanks for all you both do for the hobby!

1630Boston

Thanks for posting it, I will check it out later

messydesk

@PocketArt said:
John, how was the "Hawkeye" collection assembled to where you could examine so many different 1881-O Morgan dollars? It must have been a collector focused on this particular date/mint?

Yes. It's a single collector that is interested in this date and mint. His website, 1881o.com, has photos of all his coins that I've taken, representing probably every grade from PO1 to MS65. What started as a "can you attribute this box of 60 coins" project turned into what is now close to 1000 coins I've looked at.

ricko

Wow... 1000 coins... what a task. First of all.. thank you for the link.. I know very little about VAM's and this certainly helps... I would say, with this task on your resume, you would be the world's leading expert on 1881 O Morgan VAM's... Cheers, RickO