1878 P Morgan Dollar VAM-85 New Discovery! New B1 Reverse!

Just to let you all see what I had to go by before the coin arrived (which wasn't very much). This is the auction pictures



And after I had already purchased the coin I had the seller send me some more pictures and these was what he sent me. Even though better, they still werent good enough to see the attributes that would make it one VAM over another. I could see the polishing around the ear (which the VAM-80 and VAM-81 has)



So it is definitely a VAM-81 even though I couldn't see the blob at the wreath in these pictures. I was hoping to be able to see the crack progression to get a better grasp on the reverse die life if it were a VAM-86 because the pictures on VW aren't very good so I really need to do my own investigation to just ease my own mind and learn about these new coins as much as possible. If you look at the pictures of the Obverse you will see a couple hits on the cheek that is close to the place they would be on the VAM-80 Obverse and that is why I was optimistic but sometimes you just have to take the chance even when working with less than perfect pictures to go by

I really don't care, or even want to know the dollar figure on this latest coin, but I would be interested to know if you feel that you paid too much for it..... you know.... (the compulsive thirst for the completed registry set thing)? Do you feel that you might have exercised a lack of control in the bidding?

Just curious about the human aspect of it all...

its not the Reverse of the VAM-80,The Obverse is the same but there are no shared qualities on the Reverse. It is just like the VAM-85 where the Obverse is the VAM-80 but paired with no known B1 Reverse Die. The only difference between the two is one was the first to be found in 45 years and the other was the second one to be found in the same month

well before the VAM-85 was found I would have said "No way" but I think there is a definite possibility there may be another B1 die marriage that hasn't been discovered yet. I have been looking through my whole B1 collection (I have 5 different sets of them) just to see if maybe some of the ones I have are misattributed but so far no luck. I think the VAM-85 being discovered will have others doing the same thing which is actually how the VAM-86 was found. I have told everyone I know that collects 1878 Morgans by VAM to do the same thing and look at their coins with a fine tooth comb just to make sure it has the die marriage that its supposed to have because there are quite a few in this set that once you see certain things on the Obverse or Reverse its easy to just quit looking any further because that is the only one that is supposed to have those attributes. I think the VAM-85 being discovered kind of threw a monkey wrench in the system and turned the VAM community on its ear because it changed the way they look at their VAM's when trying to attribute them

very nice coin hope its a great find.

very nice coins

Start with the clearest full-face pics of obverse and reverse that you can. Begin your own thread for it. We will be happy to go from there, talking about details.