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VAM Rarity Question

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Pillar of the Community
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 Posted 09/24/2010  4:24 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add zeewool to your friends list
Excellent analogy Mike.
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 Posted 09/24/2010  8:34 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add twohawks to your friends list
Hey Mike.... I Still Have My Pet Rock!!

And I Know it is rarer then the 1 You Have "Mine is Differant!"

Sooo It has too be worth more!!

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 Posted 09/24/2010  8:39 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Morgans Dad to your friends list
Guys while I appreciate ALL of your posts and knowledge, and thank you for the input you guys always give, I would ask, in your own opinions, with the Pittman Act, ALL the melted Anna's from which mints and years, as stated prior, how could any entity come up with any plausible rationale for the basis of the rarity factor as we know it, with any degree of factual foundation.??
I admit I look and search for the clashes, the Cuds, rotated dies, gouges, transferred letters etc, not for the r-factor, but to actually have a better grasp on the entire process, simply put, I am very inquisitive and while I can, I intend to absorb as much knowledge as I can, ......
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 Posted 09/24/2010  9:11 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add zeewool to your friends list
I think that you already know what I think about it Mike.

I will give you a bit more of info to think on though: The government melted silver dollars each and every year from 1883 through 1964. These included Flowing Hair, Draped Bust, Seated Liberty, Trade, Morgans and Peace. They were melted without regard to type, much less mint mark or variety, but 'probably' most were Morgans.
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 Posted 09/24/2010  9:13 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add twohawks to your friends list
It has been said that when the US sold off Silver too England it was just the folks pulling the bags out. I think that they figure that the 1904's would be in the forward area of the storage and as you got deeper into the area the dates go older!

As far as how rare a Cud is or a die break is. I am to understand that it is a SWAG based on the size of the damage and the ware on the die as seen in the coin. Leroy has a method, and most of the time it as been right. On the 1882 CC VAM 3d it is off as you can find many of them on the Bay, but the surviving coins in that case is more the fact that the Treasury had millions of CC coins that came out in the 60's and 70's that had never seen circulation. So the reference point becomes scudded
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 Posted 09/24/2010  9:43 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add zeewool to your friends list
Okay, I have a question about how this designation thing goes down:

When a coin is given discovery status, how is it assigned R-2 or R-7 based on it being the first one found so far? (There must be a method to the madness).
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 Posted 09/24/2010  10:02 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add twohawks to your friends list
Lou, I can not give you an intelligent answer too that question.

SWAG = Scientific Wild ------ Guess
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 Posted 09/24/2010  10:13 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Ozland to your friends list
My understanding (and I could be wrong) is that a coin will generally be given a "R" 5 rating. If the coin is a late die state (lots of die breaks) it will be given an "R" 6 rating. If it is near terminal die state it will be given a "R" 7 rating.

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 Posted 09/24/2010  10:18 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add zeewool to your friends list
Thanks Russ, the question was not intended as a set up for further rebuttal of the rarity thing, but rather as a question of my own curiosity.
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 Posted 09/24/2010  10:25 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add zeewool to your friends list
Now that sort of makes sense Terry. Would this also explain why it seems to me that coins discovered today are more likely to be assigned as R-5 to R-7 more so than in the past? Are R-1 and R-2 becoming uncommon designations as of late?

You know, if the verbiage assigned to the numerical ratings were dropped, I could almost accept the current rarity scale as having some small degree of merit.
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 Posted 09/24/2010  10:37 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Ozland to your friends list
Forty plus years into the hobby, you will not see "R" 1 or "R" 2 ratings any longer. Enough coins have been sifted through and cataloged to ascertain that aspect. I doubt you will see "R" 3 again either.

The intellectual rights of vamming belong to Leroy Van Allen. The "I" (interest) and "R" (rarity) were assigned to give some level of quantification to a particular VAM. In the general scheme of things it was the impression at the time based on his or A. Geroge Mallis's experience in what they thought of the coin.
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 Posted 09/24/2010  10:57 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add zeewool to your friends list
It is making sense Terry. As the possibilities of unknown pairs decline, so will the probabilities of the more common varieties being 'newly' discovered.

Previously, I had considered this all to be interestingly naive. If a person looks at 10,000 coins in a year's time, how many of those 'same' specimens will have been examined more than once? More than five times? I could assign a numerical rating to those odds based on locale of origin. Just because a coin is in New England this week, does not necessarily mean it will not be located in Texas next week. What are the odds of reviewing the same coin ten times?
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 Posted 09/24/2010  11:05 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Ozland to your friends list
How about looking at these coins in the mint bags which contained a thousand? Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis were afforded this courtesy at the treasury vaults before the GSA release to the public.
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 Posted 09/24/2010  11:25 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add zeewool to your friends list
Whoa.....Now 'that' adds a whole new dimension of credibility to their work in my eyes. Once again, my arrogance is only overshadowed by my ignorance.
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 Posted 09/25/2010  9:56 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add zeewool to your friends list
wrong thread.
Edited by zeewool
09/25/2010 9:57 pm
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