Calling all Vammers!

OchoReales · February 22, 2010 5:28AM

I picked this up from a local dealer who obviously could not tell the difference between die polishing and scratches. He said that he bought it in a bulk lot and when he offered it to me, said that NGC must have been sleeping on this one and that it was a disgrace to third party grading. My gain!

Close ups!

1921-S VAM-1i Polished Obverse

I IV 1 D2a (Polished Obverse) (189) I-2 R-5
Obverse IV 1� Die excessively polished and filed with heavy raised lines all over fields of entire obverse.

blu62vette · February 22, 2010 5:30AM

Wow!! Great pickup.

RyGuy · February 22, 2010 5:30AM

I take it you were given a large discount?

OchoReales · February 22, 2010 5:34AM

<< <i>I take it you were given a large discount?

>>

Paid 64 money.

Thanks Todd!

Any idea how tough these are to locate?

cheezhed · February 22, 2010 9:54AM

Looks good to me!

blu62vette · February 22, 2010 9:58AM

<< <i>

<< <i>I take it you were given a large discount?

>>

Paid 64 money.

Thanks Todd!

Any idea how tough these are to locate? >>

I have no idea, I am just a fan of die polish.

coinkat · February 22, 2010 10:10AM

congrats- I do not recall seeing one that graded this high

OchoReales · February 23, 2010 6:39AM

Can anyone tell me how tough of a piece this really is? Any recent sales to get an idea of value? Thanks!

messydesk · February 23, 2010 6:55AM

There are roughly die pairs cataloged for 1921-S. If they're all distributed uniformly among the surviving specimens, then your accounts for 1% of the surviving population. Of course, so do all the others. We know, however, that some are rare (some of the Thornhead die stages, for example), so others would have to be more common. Fortunately, rarity isn't the final determiner of value. Coolness has a lot to do with it, and your coin is cool. Being cool, it's more likely to be in demand by someone than a more mundane die marriage, and should bring a modest premium from the right person. DennisH might have some recent transactions recorded.

Nice pickup!

BigE · February 23, 2010 7:01AM

Am I correct in assuming that one of these VAM'S could never be had in prooflike grade? It seems like a stupid question, but since this is a mint made variety over a PL die, why couldn't there be?-------------------------------------------BigE

Really nice coin BTW ocho

messydesk · February 23, 2010 7:10AM

You can have PL surfaces and die polishing lines, as there are specimens of other dates that show this, I just don't know if you can have a TPG designate it as such. I guess it depends on just how badly the mirrors are ruined by die polishing and what the threshold of pain for a TPG is for this kind of thing.

PonyExpress8 · February 23, 2010 7:38AM

A lot of folks, collectors and it would seem some dealers can't tell the difference between die polish and hairlines from cleaning.

I picked this up a couple of months back and really love the coin. I showed it to a collector at FUN and he commented how could PCGS grade this coin and then on top of it CAC sticker with all the hairlines. I commented that it was mint made die polish to try and remove the clash marks on the reverse, and they didn't bother trying much to remove the clash marks on the obverse. Die polish not hairlines!

He looked at me like I didn't have a clue and stalked off. I just had to smile over that one.

BigE · February 23, 2010 8:09AM

He probably thought "die polish" was what they used to clean the coin

----------------------BigE

Calling all Vammers!

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