Vam Question
hiijacker
Posts: 1,172 ✭✭✭
I have never searched for VAM's before, and started looking up some of my Morgans at Vamworld. I have 2 1899-o with Die breaks all around the reverse. One of the coins macthes the Die breaks in VAM 11B, exactly. The other coin does not seem to match any of these die breaks. The die breaks that encircle the coin are located in different areas of the lettering. Yet, I find no other VAMS which describe die breaks on the reverse. How do I go about attributing it?
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cannot use die cracks to attribute.
start with the date and mintmark positions instead.
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Here are pics from Vam 11A
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I don't know what else to tell you.
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Die cracks, especially those that link from one letter to another, are extremely common throughout the entire Morgan dollar series. They are the result of wear and tear as the dies were used, and usually represent a later die state of the actual VAM die pairing involved. They are sometimes a minor supporting attribution point that help confirm a particular VAM, but they are not VAMs all by themselves. (The one notable exception might be 1900-O VAM 35A, which many non-VAM folks confuse as being an early die state of VAM 29A.) I ignore die cracks entirely because they tend to distract me from identifying the actual VAM.
Die cracks are a distinctly different animal because they are much more severe, and as a result are sometimes given VAM numbers (such as 1880-P VAM 1A, 1887-P VAM 1A, 1888-O VAMs 1A and 1B, 1895-S VAM 1A, and 1900-O VAM 29A). Notice, however, that all of these are die states of an underlying VAM... as distinguished by the A or B following the VAM number.