1921 Peace VAM 1E2 - Rarity? Premium?

frnklnlvr

Found a 1921 VAM 1E2 while looking through some Peace dollars this morning. It looks to be AU50-55. I'm not that experienced with grading this series and will post some pics later today. Is there any premium for this? How tough is it to find? VAM World lists as R-6.

Thanks!

crypto79

I don't think the R scale really applies to Peace dollars other the few patterns, proofs and prototypes. If only a few are known it is more than likely because no one has bothered to look for or report. Careful of outdated book information about known examples, paid too much for a 1881/0 half eagle back in the early 90s because of that.

messydesk

The only 1921 Peace dollar VAMs someone would pay extra for are those struck from proof dies and the VAM 3, and even those don't have a big premium. Others are just designated as an exercise in enumerating known die marriages. With 24 die marriages cataloged, if all die pairs produced the same number of coins and the survival rate was the same, then each VAM accounts for just over 4% of the total population of 1921s. The R-6 rating is an estimate given at the time of discovery. In this case, it is assumed that the gouge was not present for the entire life of the die and therefore is less common than those coins only showing polishing lines from die preparation. Whether or not that rating holds depends on how diligently people look for it or study the date from a die usage standpoint.

frnklnlvr

Thanks for the replies everyone! I figuered it wasn`t worth much of a premium, if any at all, but thought I`d check anyway. Unfortunately, after reexamining I see that there are lots of hairline scratches from an inproper cleaning.

frnklnlvr

Here are the pics...