Recommended Morgan Varities Book? Got My VAM Book Today!

moosesr

I have been recently getting interested in collecting some VAM Morgan dollars and wondered what the recommended book would be to learn more about them and to use for reference? I have the Breen Encyclopedia of US coins, but it doesn't have very many VAM illustrations and I assume it is probably out of date by now. What about the Top 100 VAM book?

Thanks,
Charlie

Vet

I have The top 100 vam key , its small and has fairly detailed pics.

ldhair

A great little book.

ddbird

Get the Vam book for peace and morgans by Leroy C. Van Allen and A. George Mallis

Its a little pricy but an excellent book...the other book suggested earlier is great for travel too!

Heres a link for the book its alitlte ways down. I suggest looking for other places to buy though..i have seen cheaper

LINK

moosesr

Well, I got the Vam book for peace and morgans by Leroy C. Van Allen and A. George Mallis today and this is going to be harder than I thought.

I tried to identify the VAM for a PCGS 1880-S 7/8 that I have using my new VAM book. I think it is a VAM 9 because the mint mark looks doubled to me. However, I went to the Heritage Archives and looked at several coins listed as 1880-S 7/8 VAM 8 and VAM 9 and now I am really confused. Several of the coins listed as VAM 9 that look like they don't have the doubled mint mark, and since PCGS doesn't specify the VAM number on their holder, it is really confusing. It makes me wonder if the people at Heritage are very accurate in specifying the VAM on coins like this one?

Charlie

DennisH

Look inside the top loop of the second 8 in the date. If it has a big blob of metal inside PCGS will designate it as an 8/7. Whether it's VAM 8 or 9 depends upon the size of the mint mark. If it's big it's VAM 8. If it's huge it's VAM 9.

If there's not a blob of metal inside the loop, then the only way PCGS will call it an 8/7 is if it's a VAM 10 (horizontal 'bar' inside the upper loop of the second 8 in the date, towards the bottom.

moosesr

Dennis, here's is what I was talking about...look at these two Heritage auctions, they look like the same VAM to me.

VAM 8
VAM 9

DennisH

They are the same (VAM 9)... both have the huge S mint mark.

Heritage didn't attribute the PCGS coin correctly.

By the way, don't always assume that PCGS holder attributions are correct. They mess up a lot. Some of the most common errors they make involve the 1880-CC Reverse of '78. I often find coins holdered as 1880/79-CC R78 that are actually the much tougher 1880-CC 8/7 R78. They also mess up the 8/7 high and low, or they forget it altogether... and they still don't always catch the 1880-S 8/7 and 80/9 varieties.

What I'm saying is, forget what the holder says and look at the coin yourself.

Conder101

<< <i>By the way, don't always assume that PCGS holder attributions are correct. They mess up a lot. >>


Agreed, and not just on VAM's. Never trust the listings of head types on 1794 cents, they are frequently wrong. Head of 93 slabs often hold head of 94 coins (Usually big difference in values unless the head of 94 piece is a rare variety.)