how common are 1896-P VAM-1's?

aballein · July 23, 2007 6:39AM

I always see people touting all these crazy doubled this or clashed that Morgans..just how common are the normal Morgans?

Wolf359 · July 23, 2007 7:07AM

99.5% or so are common. Some of the easy or "gateway" vams run into the thousands in known population out of millions of coins made that year.

DennisH · July 23, 2007 7:12AM

A lot of what you are seeing is people either making the false assumption that VAM = rare, or they are engaging in deceptive hype to try to sell a coin.

Wolf is right, the vast majority of VAMs are neither rare nor valuable, because they fall under the huge heading of "who cares?"

aballein · July 23, 2007 1:12PM

so are there hard numbers when it comes to VAM's, specific numbers of say your avatar the Donkey Tail Wolf? I have this 1896-P i believe to be a VAM-1, im sure its nothing special but i am curious as to how many are known to be "normal". I never see any threads about normal Morgans, its almost as if people look down on them if they arent clashed or doubled, it could just be me i guess.

messydesk · July 23, 2007 1:15PM

VAM 1 means "normal dies," and as such isn't of interest to people collecting abnormal dies. It may be that VAM 1 is rare for a couple dates (or doesn't exist in the case of 1880-CC), but since they're normal, die variety folks generally don't give them much attention. If a gorgeous MS66 1896 happens to be a VAM 1, it'll get my attention on its more traditional merits.

Wolf359 · July 23, 2007 5:17PM

<< <i>so are there hard numbers when it comes to VAM's, specific numbers of say your avatar the Donkey Tail Wolf? I have this 1896-P i believe to be a VAM-1, im sure its nothing special but i am curious as to how many are known to be "normal". I never see any threads about normal Morgans, its almost as if people look down on them if they arent clashed or doubled, it could just be me i guess. >>

Leroy says 1896-P VAM-1 is R-2 (Rarity-2)

Symbol Number of Pieces
R-8 Unique or Nearly Unique (Several)
R-7 Extremely Rare (Few Tens)
R-6 Very Rare (Several Hundred)
R-5 Rare (Several Thousands)
R-4 Very Scarce (Tens of Thousands)
R-3 Scarce (Hundreds of Thousands)
R-2 Not so Common (Several Millions)
R-1 Common (Tens of Millions)

The Donkey Tail is estimated at R-6 (Several hundred). While a common 1887 Morgan trades at $20 or so in AU50, a PCGS Holdered Donkey tail gets $750-1000 in AU50. The fact that PCGS has holdered only 40 or so is also a factor...

how common are 1896-P VAM-1's?

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