VAMmers, what do you make of this?

jdsinva

I bid and won this coin on Heritage last night. It piqued my interest because it appears that only the M on the obverse is broken and not the N like seen on several varieties.

ANACS MS63 7TF rev 78

It has the B2 rev and the obv has a type I ear. Does anyone know of any variety with just a broken M? I've been fooled by these images before but this one looks good. What do you think?

dwssws

sorry dont know of any with just m looked at coin trying for other identifiers but dont see any except for i believe is the b2a reverse which i also have and cant identify either. nice looking coin though

RVDavis

I do not see the broken M, Jeff. Pretty coin.

Wolf359

Jeff that "M" in "UNUM" does appear to be slightly broken at the bottom. Unusual. Wait to confirm
until you have the coin in hand. I'll also check the obverse against known varities tonight.

jdsinva

<< <i>Unusual. Wait to confirm until you have the coin in hand. >>



Yes, it'll be the longest week waiting for that one to arrive. I've been fooled several times by these images so it won't be the first time I've paid for a coin to get a look-see. I guess there's no point in speculating until it arrives.

Thanks!

Rampage

I agree, the M appears to be broken, but not the N.

Let us know what you get.

jdsinva

<< <i>I do not see the broken M, Jeff. Pretty coin. >>



Rick,

There are a small number of coins which have broken serifs on the N & M of UNUM. This coin I won appears it may only have broken serifs on just the M. I thought it was a vam 110 when I first saw it but now it just has me curious to the point I may have paid more just for a look-see. I guess we'll know in a week!

Wolf359

Cannot attribute. Ask Heritage to Fed Ex that thing. You may have scored.

MAD4MORGANS

<< <i>Ask Heritage to Fed Ex that thing. You may have scored >>



Maybe you should ask for it sent USPS Insured. Heritage might be a little hesitant to send anything FED-EX right now (see thread #3)!

RobJoyce1921dVAMguy

No need to Fedex Jack, the VAM is not going to change if it takes a while to arrive

jdsinva

I'm cautiously optimistic but I've been fooled by these imges before. I can tell you a story about an 1886-O I bought from them and my all time #1 mis-purchase was the infamous 1878-S long nock coin which got me the nickname infamous long nock or ILN.

Maybe on the downside, it'll be a vam 100. . .

jdsinva

You all know this coin has me pondering lots of thoughts so I decided to look through my 7TF Morgans to see if I could find something to shed a clue. I first checked all known broken M & N coins but the ears were not the same as this Heritage coin. I was getting to the last of my 7TF coins when I came to the two examples of the vam 196 that I have and it occurred to me that I may have never looked at these coins under the microscope. I checked the ear and it seemed to match this Heritage coin, including the chip inside the ear. I looked at the M of UNUM and was surprised to find the the bottom, right serifs of the M were much thinner and weaker than other Morgans and looked to be deteriorating. The obverse of v196 is II/I 22, which is shared with vam 142, of which I do not have an example. I'm still not entirely convinced that the serifs are not missing but at least I feel better about knowing which vam it is suppose to be.

I'll post pictures of my vam 196 later after I get back from the Salem coin show.

jdsinva

Here are some comparison images of the Heritage coin and the VAM 196. Both have the chip in the ear and note the thin and deteriorated serifs on the bottom right of the M.

jdsinva

The coin came today and, yes, it is a VAM 196. Fooled again by another online image! The upside, however, is the toning is much better than the images would indicate. . .it's a keeper!

Wolf359

Sorry Jeff, thought you were onto something. At least the coin worked out for you.