VAMWorld 2.0

That presents a problem in that the 14A obverse clashing conforms to the reverse clashing on the 14A and the 20. It is far enough out of normal orientation that the explanation of coincidence would be preposterous. What is possible is that the 14A pairing occurred both before and after the 20 produc...

lured_in_again wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 11, 2020 4:10 am

Did a little digging here on VW - link to an old posting I did on some assorted 1891 o photos, the pics of the VAM 20 gouges are among them. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1021&p=8735&hilit=1 ... M+20#p8735

That cannot be a VAM-20. Look at the date position.

Looked at my 14A. The die scratches inside the bow look very much the same. I do not see the TED-wing crack on the full coin reverse shot on the VAM-20 page here though. What an evil mimic for the die. (These images are from my VAM-14A.)

That's a great VAM that has flown under the radar for a while. I do not believe I have seen one and it appears that we really could use a BU specimen. Putting it on the annual list could shake one out. Do the known examples exhibit the corresponding obverse clashing? (Or with no reverse clashing?) W...

A point worth making is that there were a few years between the 1B and 28A discoveries. For those looking for a 28A or 28B, it would be worthwhile to look at those attributed as 1B, even among your own coins. The MPD is an easy thing to miss when considering the clashing primarily. I know that I fou...

I do not recall having had a 28, 28A, or 28B, surprisingly. Some of those MPDs are questionable and also not visible throughout the entire production on some VAMs (like the 1882 VAM-24 obverse die).

Did not notice you said VAM-1B in the OP. The 1B and the 28A look very close.

Looks like a 28A. Check for the denticle impressions of the 28B.

Gouges within LIBERTY are commonly used as lock attribution details, since they are generally very distinct to the die. Most often though, we have tiy scratches within the letters themselves which are a task to see even with a loupe.

It has the gouge by the Designer's initial on the obverse, as in the VAM-5C (my discovery about 15 years ago), which I believe might be in one of the hubs, but not with the gouge above the L of LIBERTY. 1891-S-jbc-10.jpg However, whatever the obverse die is, it has a very distinct and interesting se...

surface details

Here is a raw one I have had laying around for a long time. Slanted date with a high S, set a little left. Not listed as such, but a it might be listed as a normal date and normal S. The older listings had wide tolerances. The coin is also a mess. Looks like heavily rusted dies, but it is pretty cer...

Things like the minor cud in the denticles and the G fill (an overlooked discriminant) are unlisted elements that would be nice to catalogue here somewhere to steer attributions. They might not exist on all states of the cons form the die pair, but when they do, it makes arriving at and confirming a...

It looks like the source is protected and I cannot edit the page. But while i was listing coins on eBay, I noticed the VW page for this variety does not have a shot of an obverse PUP. There is an easy marker below the ear. BTW, feel free to augment the pages with any images in my eBay lots if they a...

Super common too and in ridiculously high grades. I have had some in MS67. Tried to get Leroy to list it many years ago, but he declined. It is very different from the vanilla VAM-6 prior to clashing. We do call it out separately for the LDS in the SSDC Registry.

At this point in the VAM game, condition rarity is more important than absolute rarity. The handful of "list" VAMs that are absolutely rare are very well known and when they come to market, sellers will generally point that out in descriptions and prices. Ones that are not on the lists might not be ...

It is just VAM-6 now, as Die 2 was eliminated. The VAM-6 page should suffice FWIW.

Back up and running.

Thanks, Roger. I was expecting your clarification.

Apparently, the Pedestal Fund to finance the base for the statue in 1885 solicited nickel donations. The fairly new Liberty nickel was both symbolic and grossly unpopular, due to the nickel content and the 1883 half eagle scams. SO 1885 and 1886 nickels, already in low mintages were recycled into th...

Just a reminder that the outage is tonight and overnight. Currently am transferring an 11GB gzipped tar file (backup) across my LAN to my desktop. Just hoping my computer doesn't switch to one of my other WiFi networks in the middle and interrupt. I probably should have disabled them over the interv...