1878 P Eye Spike?

had time to copy and put it upon the big screen,, SD you are correct, not a long nock...has the over polished eye...as you say the eye spike could be do to PMD... back to painting..over polished eye and the broken d should narrow it down

I'm so excited. Do you think I actually have a VAM?

Here's pics of D and stars. First star pic is of left.

Just narrowed my collecting to Morgans 2 wks ago. Studying like crazey since. My head is spinning.

Yesterday narrowed it further to just 78's so I can learn just ONE date well.

silly me..hoping I had a VAM. I do appreciate all I learn here in just a few hours.

You people are amazing. Will follow up on the advice.

Thanks to all.

You do have a VAM lol,, thats what they all are. with any good coin and especially a very worn coin the process is essentially the same..Eliminate all possibillities of what yuou don't have by looking for main attribution points which you do have,,,Normally the date is the first thing and the mint mark is second, however the 789 series, the date was in the bub so they are all at the same location, and with no mint mark, for the 78 series one needs to figure out what Reverse type you have, for example, in your first reverse photo, it looked like a disconnected leave, (see VAM 80 for an example)...However blowing your coin up shows it is not disconnected, and as SD noted it is also NOT a long knock coin,,,so we look at the arrow feathers and NOTE they are parallel, which determines this to be a B2 reverse..vams from say 100 to 200...
thats around 100 Vams from 230 or so, so your half way there
just in determining the reverse type...
Next one needs some smoking gun or feature to narrow this down considerably,,,this you do have,,,The broken "D"
this now cuts the coins possibilities to around a dozen..
next to cut this down, one needs to take high resolution photo's of the OBVERSE letters RIB the E and P, and check as SD suggests pics of the same Liberty and cotton bowls..
crop these before resizing them so the greatest detail will be captured , I think I suspect somethings up with the R, but can't be sure yet...with these photo's one cam compare them to these last vams for what it can finally be narrowed down to...It is much harder for a worn coin but not impossible by using these methods.......Post these and lets go from there....G

Thanks for the close up photo's but I forgot to mention the letters I am referring to are of the EPluRIBus not the liberty, as the liberty usually is double in many but not all cases for this year,,how every the E,P and RIB play a great roll in attributing the 78 series....I have been trying to put some things into play, to narrow the research down,,,I do think its a broken D, but it could be just worn,,,So I'm not excluding it, but rather have it on the side bar...
try some close ups of the E,P and the RIB and also the second star right of the date please. thanks...

I haven't looked at all the files, The reverse right wing is over polished, can't quit tell if the left middle wing is due to wear,,Kind of leaning to VAM 196, as the D is not as missing/broken but very thin at the bottom....In general, the 78 series is known for the many double of letters which one can not see by your photo's it would go a long way in truely deciding what it is...one would need a micro scope to see them
difficult too with the wear and blackness always associated around the letters...Vam 196 also has a die chip in the second 8 between the upper and lower loops...even worn you should be able to see it...lets see what others have observed here..its very tuff on worn coins without real smoking guns..

My friend, this is one of your first best lesson's..we will come close but not quite get it our first time around...We all have our
"what is it pile"...now here is your first coin in the pile, it doesn't mean give up it only means move on and learn more....later with more wisdom you may find out just what it is..as you have the coin in hand you will be the one to discover it as with these pictures we cant see everything...simply move onto the next coin, there is learning in each attempt...Gene

Hi Charlene, The what is it pile really isn't giving up, its simply lets you take what you have learned and apply it to the next coin and in turn continue to grow in knowledge and experience what one looks for for die variety coins like the Morgan series...CCF has a VAM area which explains what and where to look for as well as VAM Worlds attributions 101 guide..check them out and book mark them for easy reference,
eventually you will need a cheap micro scope like the dino lite or equivalent..as many times doubling will be more easily
from a side angled viewing...pm me if you have any questions