Are Diebreaks on Morgans used for Vams or just interesting??

Comments

• DennisH Posts: 14,040 ✭✭✭✭✭

  May 13, 2005 3:19AM

  Diebreaks are a normal part of the productive life of dies. As an avid VAM collector I do not consider minor and even moderate die cracks anything more than just... die cracks.
  
  In extreme cases, however, I find them highly interesting and desireable. Most of these tend to fall into the category of die breaks that extend from the rim down into the coin, such as the 1888-O VAM 1A with the E-reverse, the 1888-O VAM 1B Scarface, and the 1895-S VAM 1A. I also love the 1880 VAM 1A knobbed-8 and the 1887 VAM 1A Donkey Tail.
  
  I'm less captivated by the 1921-Ds, for which there are literally dozens of semi-extreme diebreaks... enough that an entire book has been written about them by Rob Joyce, who is a member of these boards. While I personally find many of these interesting, I haven't yet been motivated enough to start collecting them. That may change one day, though.

  When in doubt, don't.

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• mrpaseo Posts: 4,753 ✭✭✭

  May 13, 2005 3:24AM

  I kind of thought the same thing a few days ago and was shot down

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• Wolf359 Posts: 7,666 ✭✭✭

  May 13, 2005 3:11PM

  What Dennis said. Although I believe the 1921-D die breaks are very special. A rough count is 42 different known breaks.
  They are much scarcer to find than just 2 years ago.

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• VAMs4U2BuyHere Posts: 304

  May 13, 2005 10:57PM

  
  Die "breaks" are indeed used for VAMs. It's die "cracks" that do not qualify for a VAM listing. The photo you have included in your original post appears only to be a crack, not an actual break. Die cracks are very, very common, especially in the 1921 series. However, on a positive note, die cracks can help in identifying many other VAM die varieties, and can also help to identify the stage of the die. (early die state, late die state, etc.)
  
  Interesting is a subjective opinion, and opinions will vary.

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• Conder101 Posts: 10,536 ✭

  May 14, 2005 4:10PM

  I'm not sure how they decide to assign a new VAM number anymore. I always thought of VAM's as being die varieties but some of the things I have seen assigned VAM numbers lately seem to me to be more like die stages. I mean a recent Coin World showed a newly assigned VAM that was given a VAM number for heavy die flow lines.

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• MAD4MORGANS Posts: 2,044

  May 14, 2005 5:45PM

  To add to what others have said here about different die states, some of the new Morgan Dollar VAMs are being attributed showing heavy die clash marks and these new varieties are becoming more and more popular especially ones occuring in the more scarce coins.
  
  Some of these newer VAMs can be seen at the Ashmore website--->ASHMORE WEBSITE
  
  ---Edited for spelling

  
  If I only had a dollar for every VAM I have...err...nevermind...I do!!
  
  My "Fun With 21D" Die State Collection - QX5 Pics Attached
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• PerryHall Posts: 47,501 ✭✭✭✭✭

  May 14, 2005 7:23PM

  
  
  << <i>I'm not sure how they decide to assign a new VAM number anymore. I always thought of VAM's as being die varieties but some of the things I have seen assigned VAM numbers lately seem to me to be more like die stages. I mean a recent Coin World showed a newly assigned VAM that was given a VAM number for heavy die flow lines. >>
  
  
  
  

  Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
  "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
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