What Is A VAM? - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 5 / Views: 2,452
zacharycash Pillar of the Community United States 668 Posts	Posted 07/31/2007 01:39 am I know this is a stupid question but, I dont know what a VAM is. Report this Post to the Staff

stratocaster Valued Member United Kingdom 240 Posts	Posted 07/31/2007 02:12 am <<The term " VAM" is shorthand for Van Allen-Mallis. Leroy Van Allen and George Mallis, co-authors of the Comprehensive Catalogue and Encyclopedia of U.S. Morgan and Peace dollars, use VAM numbers in that widely used reference book to denote certain varieties of U.S. silver dollars that they identified during years of research.>> That's what I found on pcgs.com Report this Post to the Staff
zacharycash Pillar of the Community United States 668 Posts	Posted 07/31/2007 02:13 am Thanks, so what I got is that it is a variety in a silver dollar. Correct? Report this Post to the Staff
tights24 Pillar of the Community United States 2254 Posts	Posted 07/31/2007 07:01 am quote: Thanks, so what I got is that it is a variety in a silver dollar. Correct? In essence yes. We have quite a few folks that are VAM experts on certain years. Superdave is the 1921 Morgan VAM expert. Bryan1315 the 1878 VAM expert. Becky, MorganFred, and many others are the experts at Morgans and such with vast knowledge in general of them. I'm sure I'm missing some of our experts, sorry. Here's some pretty good reading for you directly from VAM World: Silver dollars are created by striking metal blanks with hardened dies containing the mirror image of the desired pattern. Through careful study, slight differences can be used to identify specific dies that created the coins. Sometimes these differences occur during the creation of the dies, while other times they are caused by the maintenance or use of the dies. Extensive research on the variations in the dies used to strike silver dollars was published 40 years ago by Leroy C. Van Allen and A. George Mallis. Their work centers on Morgan dollars minted by the United States from 1878 through 1921 and Peace dollars issued from 1921 through 1935. The term VAM is an acronym for "Van Allen - Mallis." The goal of the VAM system is to number and catalog every known die variety by date and mint mark. To this end, every Morgan dollar in existence is either already a VAM or should be a VAM. This is a continuous process, and new varieties are continually discovered and added to the list. VAM-1 is always the normal die state for a specific date/mint and has no distinguishing characteristics. Die varieties that can be distinguished from each date/mint's VAM-1 are subsequently numbered incrementally (VAM-2, VAM-3, etc.) Sometimes a letter follows the number, i.e. VAM-1A. A "lettered" VAM represents a later stage of the numbered die that has a die gouge, major die crack, pitting, die clash, or any other result of a post-die-production occurrence that can be shown to have changed the die. Like VAM numbers, letters are also assigned in a one-up fashion. Keep in mind that VAM numbers for a specific date and mint mark are exclusive to that date and mint mark. There is no crossover. For example, an 1880-O VAM-2 does not have the same distinguishing characteristics as a 1882-S VAM-2. To know the die features that each VAM designation (number) shows, it is thus essential to have the appropriate reference books. Report this Post to the Staff
Conder101 Bedrock of the Community United States 17884 Posts	Posted 07/31/2007 10:55 am quote: Thanks, so what I got is that it is a variety in a silver dollar. Correct? Yes, but only on Morgan or Peace dollars. Some people try to extend the use of the term VAM to other series and use it as a generic term for "die variety" and that is not correct. Each series (especially pre-20th century series) has it's own cataloging system for its varieties and they are normally known by the name of the author of the standard reference. Report this Post to the Staff
just carl Bedrock of the Community United States 20753 Posts	Posted 08/01/2007 08:28 am And that is exactly why I put all my Silver Dollars in plastic tubes and don't even try to figure out what is what. I'm toooo old to try to figure all that out for my coins. Many, many rolls and no idea of what is what. Report this Post to the Staff
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