VAMWorld 2.0

I just want to finish my E clash set and start upgrading some of the lower grades. I only need 2 to finish . 1891 O Vam 3A1 and 1888 O vam 1a1 I think as I just picked a early state 1a2 I believe. I would like to upgrade my 1891 O Vam 1A3 to AU-50 or at least XF if I can find one. I really like thi...

This year one of my goals, and probably the top goal, is to prove or disprove the existence of the 1881-O VAMs 29 and 31. VAM 29 - Doubled 18 and Stars was discovered back in 1998, but there are no images and only one has been recorded. VAM 31 - Doubled 18 was discovered in 2001 and is also supporte...

With Photoshop you really don't need a direction, but this looks like an image worth a little more study.

But without the full coin images real or fake is indeterminable.

No chance of a planchet not ejecting and being restruct?

The full coin images would help a lot to see if the rotation was the same on both sides.

I got a letter off to Leroy late last week to get the benefit of his experience on VAMs 1 and 1A. I will post more on this today or tomorrow

I thought this one was interesting because I had a conversation where it was thought that the soft packs were uaed only for circulated coins and this would debunk that

Good question, but they have lasted since the GSA sale which I think was back in the 60s.

Here is a new one for me. I guess PCGS has started encapsulating GSA soft packs like NGC.

Where did you pick it from?

Your right and here is an example of the VAM 54. But the question remains, what is it?

It will be worth the time to read and you will understand the inner workings of the Mints much better.

I think you contact Roger here and let him tell you.

If you are into more that "it's a shinney disk" then this is a must read.

It explains a lot of the why and how that VAMmers often struggle with.

And then there is the issue of Goldbacks, now issued in Nevada, Utah, and New Hampshire. Apparently, Maine and Wyoming are slated to issue them also. I think of these as collectibles, but they raise interesting legal questions. Goldbacks are legal tender in the State of issue. This is done by having...

Then I found these 1890 regs 1890MintRegs.jpg 1890MintRegs2.jpg 1890MintRegs3.jpg 1890MintRegs4.jpg This says to me that dies were getting out of the Mint that should have been defaced or destroyed. The regs were tightened to force all dies to be numbered and returned to Philadelphia. And then ther...

To follow up on this a little more, Roger is being modest in his knowledge. If I may quote from his book "Mine to Mint" pages 407 and 408. I am not a salesman for Roger, but I have to say I find this book to be indispensable in working through die issues. If you don't have one put it on your list. ...

Let's don't let this one drop since we have all the coins we need to solve it. I know JB is busy right now, but we need to keep this issue in front of us until he can get to it.

Speaking of "Struck Through Grease" as we were. Several years back we hit on a large batch of VAM 28.3 that are all PL or DMPL coins. Every coin has some features on the reverse that are consistent and look like highlights. I had always assumed that this was remnants of grease, but is it? Just below...

Well if we want to continue down the rabbit hole no one has mentioned the Chinese fakes and how they are flooding the market. Those who post here can detect and avoid them, but the typical consumer probably cannot. For some reason the Feds seem to ignore this threat to the collecting community. I ha...

And I thought I had a point, counter-point brief discussion where I would learn something about how these dies could be reused legitimately. This sucker has a life of its own, which probably says Congress is involved somewhere along the way. As the originator, I vote we bury this one since apparentl...

I pulled all the VAM 8 coins and here are my conclusions The line appears on just 5 of the coins, and none below AU It is really present only on PL/DMPL coins, but one AU58 with really nice fields Working from the top grade down 21386923 MS64DMPL 31584848 MS62DMPL 81818381 MS61DMPL 8117637 MS60PL 81...