Can anyone ID this Morgan VAM?

Blackhawk

This 1889 Morgan has me stumped. The coin had nice AU detail at one time, but it appears that someone whizzed or polished it to "smooth out the rough spots" - by doing so it looks like they might have also smoothed away some of the elements that would help me, an admitted greenhorn, ID the VAM. The obverse has signs of die clashing, the most pronounced at the notch at the back of the cap. There's also a die clash at the front of the neck, but I can't make out for sure if there was any transfer of letters there...there appears to be something there, but as with the rest of the coin, it's somewhat smoothed out. I can't see any evidence of die clashing on the reverse. Any ideas?

Blackhawk

Any guesses?

messydesk

I can't see the pictures from here, since Photobucket is blocked, but here are some pointers for attributing 1889 Morgans:

1. Date position -- eliminate over half with this alone, as date position on 1889 drifted around a lot.
2. Doubling on the ear -- this should survive whizzing fairly well, but assuming the coin has been whizzed, be careful not to confuse whizzing artifacts with doubling
3. Chips between the loops of the 8s -- these are often secondary diagnostics for some of the varieties.
4. Die polish -- look around the cotton bolls and leaves for these, as they are often used as secondary diagnostics on the doubled ear coins.

1889 is a bad date for good dies, to wit, die erosion runs rampant, leaving you with mushy details, especially close to the edge of the coin. The implication is that doubling on the date and stars will be hard to discern.

Now go to vamworld.com and look through the 1889 varieties (left side of home page - "Morgan VAMs by Date") to see if any of my hints help. Good luck!

cmerlo1

Check out VAM-7A on VAMworld. It's clashed, and has a 'whizzed' effect, which is actually the result of severe die erosion.

Blackhawk

I took a look, but still can't match it up. I believe that the date is a "far date", but I can't see one listed with the clashing that this one has. Do they descibe all the major clashing, or do they limit the description to the clashing of letters?