What is your favorite Morgan reference book/guide?

mintluster

Curious to know what reference books my fellow Morganatics use.
What are your favorites and best books on the subject?
If more than one, please rank them.

BillJones

VAM (Van Allen and Mallis) is really great not only because of the variety listings but also the great history that is in it.

I also like the Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook by Wayne Miller although a lot of people would label it as "old."

Shamika

What about the Accugrade Book?

chrisfuccione

VAm book is the leader. CHRIS

jhar

VAM book

paigowjohnny

I've got John Highfill's "Comprehensive Encyclopaedia of U.S. Silver Dollars". It's an older book with a lot of personal crap in it, but some of the articles make up for that, and the date by date analysis of strike etc pretty much parallels Wayne Miller's book, which is a real bear to find (I had to borrow it from the CSNA library).

I've glanced at QDB's 2 volume set on Morgans and Peace dollars, and it looks great...I'd like to buy just the volume that has the Morgans, but the dealer won't break the set.

Gilbert

Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan & Peace Dollars, 4th ed is the best overall and if I could only have one, this would be it.
As for the varieties though, don't know how I could manage with these:

The Top 100 Morgan Dollar Varieties: The VAM Keys
SSDC Official Guide to the Hot50 Morgan Dollar Varieties
The 1878 Morgan Dollar 8TF Attribution System
The 1878 Morgan Dollar 7/8TF Attribution Guide
A guide to the 1879-S Reverse of 1878 Morgan Silver Dollars

MFH

...Bought the two volume set back in 1995. Have read about certain coins I'm interested in. The set is in virtually mint state, however I use the VAM book, which is alot more helpful in day to day referencing.

SDCollector

VAM book and Top 100 are my references. As I remember, the Highfill book had alot of personal pictures of people at coin shows, etc. which was kind of strange, so I passed on it. Personally the VAM book is really all I need. I wonder if there will ever be a 5th edition?

bennybravo

For me personally, it's Wayne's textbook.A brief Date by Date analysis that tells you what to expect for every date, from a guy who has seen un-godly amounts of dollars.It's to the point,compact, and a great read(not to mention the wonderful section on toning!).The Vam book is a must have for research and if i had to pick one at this point, that would probably be it since i think i've about memorized the Textbook from reading it so many times.John Highfill's book is enjoyable also,especially the PL section for me, but it could've been about 1/2 the size, and been much better without the massive family photo album sprinkled throughout.It's still all in all a great book IMO.

DaveG

I'm not into Morgans in a huge way, so I mostly like the VAM book for its grading guide and text (especially the chapter on the GSA sales).

I also think that Highfill's book could have been half the size!

I really love Dave Bowers' Silver Dollar Encyclopedia, which covers all the silver and copper-nickel dollars up to about 1993. It's out of print and goes for about $400-$500 at auction, but I think it's a really great book.

Aethelred

VAM is all I use.