You may guess from my avatar, I'm a big fan of the "polished wheat" seen on the 1900-O VAM-2A. It was one of my first VAMs I pulled from the bay years ago.
Somehow I tentatively assigned another 00-O as VAM44 a while back, and today I was reviewing it closer to find what I think is a pair of duplicate listings. Look closely at the details and photos of the 2A1 & 44, and the 2A2 & 44A varieties.
I believe the VAM-44 is the same as the 2A1, and the VAM-44A is actually the 2A2.
Key PUPs are:
- Identical polishing in wheat,
- doubling of inside ear is slight (it's there but very slight and easily overlooked),
- the wing-leg die gouge of the 2A's can be seen in the 44A LFCP,
- the fact that m/m is borderline High O and could be called either way. Same location in both 2A2 close up as 44A LFCP. 2A2 LFCP looks higher than 44A LFCP! I think it's placed a bit right of center actually.
- the extra P & RIP breaks of VAM-2A2 are just as prominent in the 44A photos. The LFCP of 2A2 doesn't even have a break on left side of E. Compare them yourself. It's scary how similar they photos are. When viewing individual photos, you have to check the filenames to know which coin you're viewing.