Is this a vam? 1880 O Morgan XF45
Spartcom5
Posts: 399 ✭✭✭
Found this fun Morgan earlier for $25. I love cheap graded Morgans! Anyways I was looking at VAM world and it seems this has an oval O (O/O) which is associated with a couple VAMs but I can't seem to find out which one. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 
1
Comments
Difficult to tell...it looks as if it has had a hit there and the metal was moved... The experts may have more input.....Cheers, RickO
From what I understand, all Morgan and Peace dollars are VAMs. Identifying which VAM is the challenge. VAMWorld used to be the site with loads of images, but I believe it has been shut down and the info has been moved to another site...which escapes me at the moment.
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I agree that hits on the coins, especially on the mint mark, are going to make it tricky to attribute. There are many oval Os for 1880-O. Without digging into the listings, the first thing I'd look at is the 80. Many of these are repunched dates, and some are overdates. The overdates often manifest themselves as a "checkmark" on the surface of the 2nd 8 where the lower left tip of the crossbar of the 7 would be. Naturally, this can be tough to see on a circulated coin, and can also take some getting used to seeing even on uncirculated coins. Absent that, I'd look at the 0 for "pincers" on the top left and right of the coin from a repunched date to help me narrow it down more. I don't see this on your coin, but you might have repunching on the lower left inside of the 0, unless that's just a funny reflection.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
RE: 1880 Morgan dollars. As noted, a great many are overdates (1880 over 79) created by filling and repunching existing 1879 dies. Visibility of the original "79" depends on success of the filling and any breakup of filling during use. When the work was perfect, no overdate is discernible and the die appears entirely normal. Whether these are called "overdates," "repunched dates," or both as in the first sentence above, is up to the practitioner.