1888 Oval O VAM's

direwolf1972

Here are a two 1888 Oval O's that I picked up a few weeks ago at local B&M for sub $20 range.

Here are what I think after looking over all the pup's.

First one I'm pretty sure is a 1888-O VAM-24 High Oval O Tilted Left. Although havent completely ruled it out as a 1888-O VAM-21 Oval O Tilted Left.

Second set of pictures show a 1888-O VAM-17 Near Date, Oval O. Close up pictures of die scratch.

VAM-24





VAM-17

direwolf1972

11:30 eastern time last night wasnt a good time to post this since all the happy new years posts quickly sent it into page 3.

Bump back up for any opinions.

DennisH

According to C. Ash Harrison's 1888 & 1889 Oval-O attribution guide, I agree with your VAM 17 diagnosis. As for the VAM 24, I'm not sure. The date and mint mark placements look correct, but key diagnostics Ash discusses are too small (and perhaps too covered with gunk buildup on such a heavily circulated coin) to show up in the photos.

ProofCollection

What is meant by "Near Date?"

tahoe98

i'm taking a guess here, are you referring to the sba dollars?

messydesk

Near date refers to the position of the date relative to the tip of the bust. Near means the left edge of the lower serif of the 1 is no more than 2 denticles away. Far means at least 3. Normal, as you can deduce, is somewhere in between.

On the two coins, I'm leaning toward VAM 24 and 17, but haven't checked any of my resources yet. I'll look into it after I get back from taking the kids sledding. They need to burn off some steam and I need to burn off some Indian food.

Coxe

Mmmm.....Indian food.

Would be nice to take my kids sledding. A shame it would be an 8 hour drive or so.