Is VAMming A Volatile Hobby?

I will tell you what vamming is to me. It is a world of intrigue, mystery and treasure hunting all in one. It is about adventure where you pit your wits and knowledge against a coin dealer. It is not for the faint of heart. I suspect this is why there are so many strong personalities in vamming. I like busy coins and they tell a story if you take the time to learn what to look for and why.
By way of example. I was at a coin show today in St. Louis, Missouri and met a fellow vammer. He had with him a 1878-P PCGS MS 61 VAM 9. He paid sixty-nine dollars for it raw.

VAM 9 is the first Morgan dollar die pair. The first Morgan dollar was minted on March 11, 1878 at 3:17 PM. The coin machines of the day could mint up to 90 coins per minute. A newspaper reporter was there to record the event and the first specimen was a presentation gift to then President Rutherford B. Hayes. According to the U.S. Mint records three hundred and three were minted before the dies broke. Besides the mint record, this was reported by the news paper reporter. So the coin I looked at today by extrapolating data was minted between 3:17 PM and 3:20 PM. Now that is numismatic forensics!
Vamming is all about the friends you make and the experiences you can share. You can't put a price on that.

There is beauty all around if you take the time to admire it. There is sorrow and tragedy if you take time to live it. So many people are so afraid of dying they can't make time for living even though from the time they are born, they are living to die. Like always, life is what you choose to make of it. For me,
vamming is a nice distraction as it involves problem solving and is intellectually challenging. It really does force one to understand all of the dynamics that were in play in the minting process. At the same time, I have often wondered what the coiners of yesteryear would think of vamming today? I am certain to a man they would say we are all nuttier than fruitcakes.

As you know, the 1878-P VAM 9 is an interesting study with its widely reported 303 strikings. While I believe the reports to be true,
I personally believe it more likely that the 'broken' dies were later 'cleaned up' and put back into production which I think accounts for the high number of extant VAM 9's we see today.

Keep in mind, for many years that has been the single most desirable VAM, and everybody is looking for them. I suspect the total extant population is very nearly discovered. With that said, I'm inclined to agree that something's fishy about the production numbers vs. known examples.

And I say that number could well be 403 instead of 303.