VAM - Two questions - Are the changes/variations were made by the designer or not ? Why the changes

CMCART

VAM refers to different varieties of Morgan and Peace Dollars.

The Morgan Dollar is named after its designer, George T. Morgan, who designed the obverse and reverse of the coin.

VAM - Are the changes/variations were made by the designer or not ?

Why the changes have not been reported for many years before their discovery ?




Significant changes - My example:

TommyType

No. It's a mistake to say that VAM's are the result of changes made by the designer.

They are identifiable varieties due to (often insignificant) variation in the dies used to produce the coins. It's really the variability of the manufacturing process that results in the differnt VAM's, and with a few exceptions, NOT the result of intentional design changes.

messydesk

VAMs refer to discernably unique die marriages and die stages involving those marriages. The die numbering scheme (starting I, II, III, IV for obverse, A, B, C, D for reverse) acknowledges major and minor changes in the design, but the VAM numbers themselves do not.

DennisH

The "changes" you mention came from many sources, but none from the designer – other than major design type changes like 7 versus 8 tailfeathers and Reverse of '78 versus R79, for example.

Instead, they were most often the result of mistakes by Mint workers, improperly made dies, poorly aligned dies, etc... the kind of things you can file under the heading of "stuff happens".

CMCART

How do you explain this? - A significant change and very accurate !!! Link:


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1891-CC Morgan Silver Dollar VAM-3 Spitting Eagle Top 100

DennisH

Mint worker may have dropped something on the reverse die, or dinged it against something to create the "spit" feature.

That particular VAM, by the way, is excessively common.

TommyType

<< <i>Mint worker may have dropped something on the reverse die, or dinged it against something to create the "spit" feature.

That particular VAM, by the way, is excessively common. >>



Yeah....I kind of doubt George Morgan was sitting around the office one morning, and decided, "Hey! You know what would be fun? What if we made the eagle spit! Collectors would be entertained for YEARS with that...." Jolly Joker, that George!


Nope. Just a die variation. Same holds for Overton numbers for Bust Halves, or Sheldon numbers for Large Cents, or Valentine numbers....basically every list of die varieties for coinage that exist.

If the die difference can be identified, and is repeated with every coin made with that die, then you have a variety that someone has either identified, or someday someone will.

They are fun. But they are at their very heart, either just mistakes or slight variations inherent in the process of creating dies, using the technology and techniques that existed at the time.

CMCART

It seems planned - VAM 48 HANGNAIL !!!

Link from Todd - The Vette Set :


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messydesk

The "hangnail" is simply a die gouge, not planned by the designer. Whether someone handling the die decided it would be a cool thing to do or not is not known, but it would have been a career-jeopardizing move to make it intentional. The only dies in the entire series which seem to have been made different from what was intended by the designer are the 1884 VAM 3 and VAM 4, with a small dot added to the die, presumably not by Morgan, for reasons yet unknown.

Wolf359

Just a tool slip makes a gouge.




Or maybe acid spilled onto a die: