OK, a stream-of-consciousness attribution. 1880-S is not known for any truly *outstanding* varieties; one has to sweat the details to nail one. Remember, I haven't looked at any 1880-S
VAM listings yet. If you can't attribute a
VAM at a glance, note the details of your own coin first, before loking at examples. If you look at example VAMs first, you may get into a mindset where you're trying to fit your own coin into a
VAM you saw.
Obverse: Date appears to be in normal position. Kinda low, not tilted. Do I see doubling inside the right of the first 8? No dash under an 8 - I know this plays in some other VAMs. No obvious clashing, no obvious letter or star doubling except maybe the left of the "I" in "PLURIBUS." The bottom of "LIBERTY" is kinda mushy.
Reverse: Big ol' mint mark, tilted left and possibly doubled. This may be the smoking gun. Typical San Francisco strike, no clashing, no obvious doubling. The "s" in "trust" looks kinda funky. Area around bow is pretty clean, although on some varieties this can be found both "clean" and "cruddy" in terms of die lines. Doubled olive to the left of the (viewer's) left leg. This can be a factor in some years; I don't know if it's a factor in 1880-S yet. Remember, I haven't looked at any 1880-S varieties yet.
OK, off to VAMworld. Oh, look! "Medium" and "Large" S varieties! First pics establish that this is a "Large" mint mark. That causes me to click "Large S Reverses," thereby narrowing the field considerably. I know as well that I can eliminate non-tilted mint marks, because this one is obviously tilted.
And that's where I stop, because it's where the owner of the coin needs to get out a loupe strong enough to see doubling not apparent even in the huge photos provided. Or maybe not, but the only way to proceed from here is to go the eyestrain route and check it against every variety, one by one.
Welcome to VAMming.
Posted 03/30/2011 10:05 am
