1888-o Morgan Dollar. Do you know what Harrison stage this is?

Agflyer

I have an 1888-o Morgan Dollar, which appears to be an EDS Scarface. I'm curious about which Harrison Stage it is, and I was wondering if anyone here could help identify it. My photos are just close-ups in natural light of what I believe are some of the key identifiers. I'm definitely not a photographer . The coin is in a PCGS MS-63 holder. Thanks in advance!!

gumby1234

I've never heard of a Harrison stage? Looks like a normal Morgan dollar to me.

lilolme

In the resources thread pinned to the top of the US Forum is a link to the VAM page.

http://www.vamworld.com/wiki/Home

Go to the Morgan 1888 O page:

http://www.vamworld.com/wiki/1888-O_VAMs

On this page there is a link to the scarface VAM with some good Information on the stages. Starts at page 27 of the pdf.

http://www.ssdcvams.com/VAMview9.pdf

Agflyer

Perfect, that's what I was hoping to find! Thank you very much.

jfriedm56

Your 1888-O EDS looks like a Vam1B2 Harrison 2 maybe 3 to me.The die crack has yet to make any headway into the field in front of Liberty’s nose which would notate a H4 or H5. Here is one I found years ago in a dealer’s common silver dollar box. This is a Vam 1B4 H10- Terminal die state as described in Harrison’s book.

Aotearoa

I learned something new!

AUandAG

3

bob

BustHalfBrian

Stage 2-3. Leaning towards 3 for the die crack’s length. Cool EDS Scarface. Thanks for sharing.

alefzero

Stage 4 - crack birfucates in the field inside the dot in 3 and a small break (evident on yours) forms on the inner side of the dot in 4. (From VAMView #9, Sept 2007)

RobertScotLover

JFriedman what is the grade of your great piece?

jfriedm56

@RobertScotLover, PCGS chose to grade this an MS61

gumby1234

That pic is much better i can see the "scar" now. Still I've never heard of Harrison. Is this something new?

lilolme

@gumby1234 said:
That pic is much better i can see the "scar" now. Still I've never heard of Harrison. Is this something new?

There are two coins pictured. First the OP is an EDS (early die state) of the Scarface variety and only has a crack in the field (and noted as not a true scarface). The second picture is another coin and a later die state and has the Scarface crack thought the 'face'.

I don't know when Harrison started but the pdf that I linked above is dated Sept. 2007 and the 1888 O by Ash Harrison. The link above to the VAM 1B for the Scarface notes that the VAM stages 1B1 through 1B4 were discovered in 2006 (last one in Jan 2007). So perhaps the noted pdf in 2007 is about when the Harrison 10 stages started. Just guess work on my part though.

ricko

Not being a VAM afficionado, I was unaware of the finite gradations for the scarface Morgan. Learned a bit here this morning. Cheers, RickO

gumby1234

Thanks @lilolme

oih82w8

A very desirable variety! Thanks for sharing information.