Quote:I for one am very interested in learning the
VAM attributation process...But, with all due respect, a fair majority of the posts are a lot of emotional nonsense/baloney that go way too far off track from what a new VAMMER is trying to understand. The post are way too long winded. The nuts and bolts IMHO shouldn't take more than a few sentences....Also I notice an attitude from frequent posters that is somewhat "good old boysish" and is not what the posters say they are trying to accomplish with helping new VAMMERS....I also can't imagine frequent posters taking this much time out of their lives every day unless they some serious vested interest$$$$ ...Or unless one likes to post incessantly....Anyways...Cheers from the Tundra!
I feel the need to address this in an official capacity.In my own words, nonetheless.
Insofar as topics here get dragged off into the puckerbrush, I both admit responsibility and accept blame. Not only am I personally responsible for doing some of the dragging, I am further officially responsible for the efficient conduct of this forum. It is my choice to allow things to go this way, and although I carry no more authority than any other Moderator here, so far I've been allowed to do it.
Here is why I'm encouraging this environment:
1) Coin Community is never going to be the central repository of information on individual Morgan varieties. That's the job of VAMworld. We're going to duplicate their efforts to an extent as time goes by, but VAMworld is where the world needs to go to get the last word on VAMs, now and into the future.
It is our intent at Coin Community to concentrate on the newer collector. Look up and to your left - note the slogan, "Education is the key to collector success." That's what we're here for. But, attributing a
VAM is science, not art. One short post is all it would take to teach you the basics of VAMming, and the rest is, and always will be, up to you.
Quote:
Look for doubling. Concentrate on date, stars, letters and ear on the obverse. Concentrate on letters and the wreath on the reverse. Look for *anything,* cracks, breaks, weirdness, that is different from the next Morgan you own. Then go to VAMworld and see what it says about what you found.
That's how you attribute a
VAM. That's all of it. I don't attribute VAMs from memory - I attribute them from VAMworld and other reference sources. I know maybe a hundred VAMs on sight, out of 4,000. The rest, I don't know about until you post a picture and I do the steps I quoted above. If I offer an attribution of a date other than 1878 and 1921, you can be sure I haven't ever seen it before you posted it.
Other members here know more than I - they maybe have specialties in other dates than I - but that's what they do as well. Nobody, ever, will remember them all, and what I quoted above is the
only common denominator to attribution.
2) Not everybody here is new to coins, Morgans, or attribution. The guy who wrote the 1902-O Attribution Guide is a poster in here. I know who he is, and respect his wish for privacy by not revealing the fact. Some relatively prominent VAMmers post here. In addition to serving the newer collector, we need to provide an attractive environment for them, as well, so they'll stick around to help teach.
That means we're going to wander off into what some might consider more arcane areas of knowledge.
Every bit of that arcane knowledge ought to some day be in the arsenal of someone who is committed to VAMming. Knowing "why" is very, very important to your ability to know "what." Consider
Machine Doubling when I say this.
At the same time we're trying to teach new people, we're trying to further the advancement of the hobby itself. Sometimes the two intersect, and when we're communicating in near-real-time, sometimes it happens
now.
3) This place can sometimes have the appearance of an "old boy" network. That's because we foster an informal atmosphere. But consider some of the personalities involved. Zeewool has been here less than two years. Aladinslamp, who in my opinion does more for newer VAMmers than anyone else here, just passed his first anniversary at Coin Community. The only prerequisite to be a member of the "network" is to be here. Registering is the sum of your price of admission.
I feel very strongly that the proper environment to discuss
Morgan dollars is one in which fish of all sizes can swim freely. A resulting degree of intimidation on the part of new members is to be expected, because we simply
can't keep this permanently at "VAMs 101" and expect to retain the people who are capable of teaching that course.
Furthermore, the game changes daily. There's a
huge amount of information to exchange, and we're not even close to gathering it all yet. Keep that in mind - this is not like Bust Halves, where most varieties are already known. What's true about Morgans today might not be true tomorrow.
Thank you for raising this, 1893S. Look at the threads in here - for every post, there are 10 reads. For every one who feels like you do and speaks up, there are 10 who feel the same way and never speak. We don't want to discourage them, and we can't get it right 100% of the time. We only know about it if someone says something, and you therefore do as much a service to this forum as
anyone else by raising the point.
If I haven't addressed it adequately, call me out. Not via email,
call me out here. In the open forum. Interrupt a thread. Communicate. We always say, "the only dumb question is the one which goes unasked." We mean it. If there's a problem with how things are going, we'll address it in the open.
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Posted 01/22/2011 7:03 pm
...Gene, No more ?
If I get time tomarrow, I will post a new thread....one more specific, so as not to include all of the areas of Vamming...
