A Slew of New VAM Discoveries

Coxe · October 25, 2007 3:50PM

I forgot to post the last few packages I got back from Leroy, but this one I should. There are a number of pretty good ones.

In a nutshell, here is what I sent and the results.

1880 Raw -- VAM-51 Discovery I-3 / R-6, a exciting MPD for the date. I also believe it is an 1880/80/79 overdate but Leroy isn't convinced. Long Beach September bourse pick up that I graded AU58. 880/880, MPD 8 and DDR.
1881-O PCGS 64 -- VAM-1H Discovery I-2 / R-5, Teletrade buy in August. Wing gouges.
1882-O NGC 65DMPL -- VAM-45 Discovery I-2 / R-5, had for many years and decided to finally send. 18/18 and left O.
1884 NGC 66 -- VAM-17 Discovery I-3 / R-5, picked up on the Long Beach bourse in September. Die scratches and MPD 4.
1887-O NGC 64DMPL -- VAM-25, a coin he wanted to photograph.
1891 Raw -- VAM-9B Discovery I-2 / R-5, local B&M purchase. (Also got the VAM-9A discovery; remember the minibar?) I'd grade it AU55. "n" clash and doubled ear.
1896 ANACS 65DMPL -- Updated VAM-26 to include an erroneous reengraving of the bonnet top through the overpolished wheats.
1900-O NGC 62 -- Thought I would get a VAM-35A discovery but it is now VAM-14A since Leroy combined VAMs 14, 35 and 37.
1921 Raw -- VAM-3DB Discovery I-2 / R-5, had for ages. I'd grade it AU50. Scribbling scratches.
1921-D PCGS 64 -- VAM-1DQ Discovery I-2 / R-5, Teletrade buy from April 2006. Scribbling scratches.
1921-D PCGS 64 -- VAM-1DR Discovery I-2/ R-5, one of two of this VAM bought on Teletrade May 2006. Scribbling scratches.

Texast · October 25, 2007 4:36PM

Very nice, congrats on your discovery Vam's!

BIGJAYVEE · October 25, 2007 7:13PM

John,Very impressive,WTG on the discovery Vams and glad to see you are alright and hope the fires out there did'nt effect you.

Steve27 · October 25, 2007 8:51PM

Wow, that's quite impressive.

dwssws · October 25, 2007 8:54PM

congrats! and a nice group of discoveries!

kryptonitecomics · October 25, 2007 9:22PM

Are any of those worth anything as far as premiums? The fact that you got so many discoveries is awesome but I can't see a lot of what is being pointed out in the photos even at high magnification? How did you know to send those in or did you just pick out 22 morgans and send them in?

Thanks

coinkat · October 25, 2007 9:27PM

congrats... well done

messydesk · October 25, 2007 10:35PM

Nice group there! I think I like the 1880 VAM 51 best. Glad to hear you break radio silence in light of the fires.

Coxe · October 25, 2007 10:51PM

<< Are any of those worth anything as far as premiums? The fact that you got so many discoveries is awesome but I can't see a lot of what is being pointed out in the photos even at high magnification? How did you know to send those in or did you just pick out 22 morgans and send them in?

Thanks

>>

The premiums get worked out later as some might be sought after by collectors. The possible ones are the '80, '81-O and '84 ones in this batch. I think the scribbling scratches might be collectible pretty thinly but most who would go after them probably would want to find each for themselves.

When looking at Morgans, I try to find new and unusual ones all the time, not just known and popular VAMs. This is especially true for my prooflike set, which is why a large fraction of my discovery coins are certified PL and DMPL. For close to 20 years I set interesting ones aside and they accumulated in a huge number. In spring of 2006, I decided to order Leroy's VAM update materials to sort them all out. I found that a lot of neat discoveries were made by people over the time I just sat on mine. So I started sending them in ten or twenty at a time. Most of the original group of a couple hundred in my hoard have since been either attributed from the updates or sent to Leroy. Still have some though to send. Mixed in the boxes I mail out are new ones I locate on bourses and in online auctions. The choices as to what to send are based on what I think both Leroy and I might agree are interesting and new and are photographable. I had over 50 for the last batch that I trimmed down to 20. Two 1887-O ones were sent for Leroy to photograph not as new candidates. A lot of scribbling scratches possibilities were put back in the safe deposit box to be possibily sent some other time.

There are also premiums for discovery coins. I have not seen any consistency in tha though. I think many discoverers would value theirs higher than the market would pay. I would have a hard time selling mine but it would probably be a therapeutic exercise doing so one day. For the most part, the more significant and popular the VAM, the higher the likelihood of a bigger premium attached to the discovery piece.

Coxe · October 25, 2007 10:58PM

<< John,Very impressive,WTG on the discovery Vams and glad to see you are alright and hope the fires out there did'nt effect you. >>

We are at the coast at a location where if the fires reached us the whole city would have been lost. So I can only complain about bad air and inaccessibility of some things. Overall, the loss of life and property are astonishingly low considering the extent of the fires in San Diego County. Oh the other effect I have felt is that of wild animals in the neighborhood/yard. Nothing hugely significant, just raccoons, oppossums and coyotes. Would not have been surprised to have heard about urban deer or a case of a mountain lion on city streets. A lot of critters had to flee the advancing flames and smoke.

kryptonitecomics · October 25, 2007 11:29PM

Thanks for the reply John.....I have picked up up 15 Morgans in the past month in old NGC fatty holders so they haven't been attributed. I have the Morgan Vam book but to be honest after looking over each coin with a 18X loop I didn't see anything that jumped out at me as far as doubling etc so I didn't really dig deeper. I do have one coin (1898-O) that has an extreme amount of die cracks on the reverse. I know die cracks in of themselves does not denote a die variety per say but it did make me wonder if that coin had some potential

Too bad you live in Cali and I live in Florida as it would be nice to sit down with a Vammer and look through my small collection of Morgans

ibzman350 · October 27, 2007 3:06AM

Congrats.

Okay, one more time, let me go see.

Everytime you guys discover new 1921 VAMS I have to go through my hoard of 200 +coins to see If I have any of them.

And everytime I do that the wife rolls her eyes, shakes her head and says "didn't you just look at all those coins last week?"

Women!

Herb

Coxe · October 28, 2007 7:33AM

LOL, Herb. And I am sure I am not the only other one besides you. An heads up...I have a half dozen more scribbling scratches that need to go off to Leroy some day.

fc · October 28, 2007 7:40AM

one has to wonder where it will end when you consider the
massive amounts minted?

but i totally respect a person who can look at coins the way
you do!

my eyeballs almost fell out going through 12.50 cents of wheaties
looking for lamination errors, DDO, DDR, etc...

after a while it was not fun :-(

messydesk · October 28, 2007 7:40AM

<< LOL, Herb. And I am sure I am not the only other one besides you. An heads up...I have a half dozen more scribbling scratches that need to go off to Leroy some day. >>

Leroy blames me for starting the "scribbling scratches" thing. I apologized to him at the ANA show.

Coxe · October 28, 2007 9:10AM

<< 

<< LOL, Herb. And I am sure I am not the only other one besides you. An heads up...I have a half dozen more scribbling scratches that need to go off to Leroy some day. >>

Leroy blames me for starting the "scribbling scratches" thing. I apologized to him at the ANA show.

>>

Well, someone needed to replace Mark K and the onslaught of clashed die varieties.

ibzman350 · October 28, 2007 11:08AM

<< 

<< LOL, Herb. And I am sure I am not the only other one besides you. An heads up...I have a half dozen more scribbling scratches that need to go off to Leroy some day. >>

Leroy blames me for starting the "scribbling scratches" thing. I apologized to him at the ANA show.

>>

So it was you, huh??

Yea that "scribbling scratches" thingy has me totally going bonkers.

Herb

Zoins · October 28, 2007 11:12AM

Congrats on the discoveries!

It would be pretty cool if he included the TPG numbers on the letter and they got pedigreed

Coxe · October 28, 2007 11:19AM

<< Congrats on the discoveries!

It would be pretty cool if he included the TPG numbers on the letter and they got pedigreed

>>

Usually, they can be verified by marks on the coin that show in his photos. The raw and ANACS ones have been getting tagged as discovery pieces at ANACS. The PCGS and NGC ones have identifiable marks.

A Slew of New VAM Discoveries

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