VAMWorld 2.0

What are the facts? Multiple posts and articles are inconsistent. Who brokered the deal? What's the date/mint/denomination breakdown? When was this discovered? Most cornfields are not plowed anymore.

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Coin collecting publicity in the US has long focused on the rich and famous holdings. But in reality most proof sets, limited silver strikes in the 1870s-80s, and high quality coins of all dates and mints were acquired by ordinary middle class people. Research reveals many of their names, and shows ...

If any members want a copy of my detailed article about 1895-P dollars, send me a PM with your email. It absolutely confirms that 12,000 circulation coins were struck in late June. What happened to the coins is unknown. The article was published in Coin World in 2006 and used as a teaching tool in s...

Given that "First Strike" is entirely specious, what's the point? [The first 100 coins from new dies are not segregated. Your "First Strike" coin likely came from some later portion of the die pair's usable life. It wasn't 'first' at anything, and might really have been 'last.']

I understand Vampicker's points, but they do not explain the variations seen in the coins. As for digit relief, we'll need real measurements to have a conversation. (PS: Adjustments were made to the Master Die -- not a hub.)

It's worth pointing out this is all speculative at best. I'd also strongly question any comparison to the 1880/79 overdates. That would seem to be far more likely from the hub itself and unlike the O/CC. 1) 1880/79 visible overdates "float" all over the place. They are individual to each obverse di...

It is speculative in part, but based on analogous practices in other lines of business. (Your dentist in a good starter. Ask him/her about filling a tooth cavity. Ask mine reclamation specialists about filling pit mines. Ask road repairers about filling pot holes. Etc.) Further, no other explanation...

The dies were already soft. Work hardening occurred between squeezes when the hub was used to impress the design. That was relieved by the last annealing before shipment (after the CCs were punched). CC letter.jpg Had existing CCs simply been over-punched with an "O" the metal would deform. This wou...

Understood. During a specialty's infancy discoveries follow one another quickly, and are invariably the more eye-catching varieties. In VAM varieties there was also the advantage of a pre-formed structure and guidance from the "founders," and VAMers became part of the Great Link. After some years, t...

RE: How did they "work harden" the dies at the branch mints? Work hardening was impact driven, was it not? Work hardening was not something die sinkers liked, largely because it was put of their control. During die manufacturer, each time the die was struck buy the hub, it hardened a little. The is ...

RE: "Well shucks, there's that pesky use of 'condemned' again..."

Mint usage is consistent: "No longer usable;" also "rejected" as in, "The coiner's delivery was condemned as being of incorrect fineness."

RE: "So I pose this question: How exactly was Carson City 'hardening' soft dies?" A good description and illustration are in From Mine to Mint. The short version is -- A die was heated to bright red in a furnace with indirect heat. It was kept at that temperature for about 30 minutes. It was them re...

Roger, is there documentation that this method was used on the O/CC dies, or is it educated detective work? All we know about the O/CC dies is above and in the VAM listings. There are no specific engraving records known. The techniques I've described are built on correlation and analysis of the few...

Dies steel before hardening is not especially hard to chase, smooth or fill if one has experience and high quality engraving tools. John Mercanti and I discussed this (and other points of engraving dies) while he was still at the Philadelphia Mint. He emphasized, experience, skill and patience in al...

There are other ways to replace a mintmark or digit including drilling into the die, filling with a plug and re-punching. This is visible on some foreign coins where the edge of the plug and original die begin to separate. (A lot like the early plugged coin experiments such as silver center cents, a...

If the area around a mintmark were polished or ground down to remove the original, that would leave a depression in the die. If then struck on a planchet, it would produce a raised lump on the coin. If, before coining, a new MM were punched into the previous location the low point would be even furt...

They did much the same as your dentist when filling a cavity. Soften the die. Undercut the original incuse CC. Fill with red steel wire. Tamp and smooth overfill. Punch new mintmark (or leave as-is). Buff die of needed. (Punching a new MM improves the mechanical lock between original steel and fill....

One needs either: 1) a single 1879 proof from the same obv as 1879-O, or 2) technical/mechanical matching between a proof and the 1879-O. Either is possible, but the second appears more probable at present. Once characteristics and place of origin are established, purpose becomes paramount. (I suspe...

Recently scanned documents show that the Philadelphia Mint reported destruction of the following Carson Mint dies from 1893: 18940113 Dies destroyed from SF CC NO mints 1893_Page_6.jpg The same report shows that reverse dies were retained for reissue from the following: 18940113 Dies destroyed from ...