A Side Benefit To VAMming

The coin that sold was not mine. Two of the three have been details-graded (problem) and attributed as VAM 111. I intend to send mine in for grading and attribution and will share results here. After that, who knows.

My comment on the rarity scale was not meant to discredit Leroy Van Allen or VAMmorld in any way. I realize these numbers are best guess at the time of discovery. It was only meant to further boost the significance of your coin.

The exact same thing that happened to me so I can relate. But you have to admit it does make things exciting even if you are not ready to sell.
As far as Rarity thing goes there have only been 4 of the VAM-85's been found so far (that I know of) since Oct 2010 and its a R6 also. Everyone thought when mine was discovered that that number was going to be off by quite a bit because there was no way the Reverse die lasted very long at all but as Seated Nut said its just a guess that LVA puts on the coin when he has the coin in his hands and attributes it with a specific VAM number. Also unlike Bust Halves I have seen the rarity really isn't what makes it worth the money, its the interest level. If its a coin that is a date or mm or whatever type of attributes it has that allot of people collect then they are all going to need that VAM to complete their sets and that brings the price way up, the more collectors needing it the more you will get for it when time to sell. There are some R6 VAM's that sell at little to no premium but then there are some like the one SeatedNut has that sells for 10-15 times what another coin of the same date/mm would be worth

silvercoinrn,

No worries ... it wasn't easy for me either. My first VAM experience was on CCF in 2007. My coin was an 1878-P long nock (7 feather B1 reverse). The features matched several listed VAMs. I had to learn the combinations to figure it out. My coin was a VAM 82. Once I learned that the V82 is the only one with detached leaves and a complete nostril I had a BINGO!

Next I started trying to attribute 78-P Morgans from ebay pictures (download and enhance). My success rate at first was not good, actually it was miserable. And I paid too much for coins based on faulty attributions ... this was another motivation to improve.

I can't remember when it happened, but one day it all sort of just clicked. I developed a rhythm for vamming. My eyes would start looking first at the # of tailfeathers, the nock, the 'r' in trust, 'o' in God, etc. Using this "by the numbers" method I was able to put the coin in a very small group of candidates within a few seconds. If interested in the coin I would do a side-by-side compare with photos on VAMWorld.

Probably the greatest help in my learning process was the assistance I got here (I won't embarrass these two guys but they are here regularly and have very high post counts ). If you are able to take and post decent photos of the complete obverse and reverse of the coin, do so here and we are more than happy to help. A caveat for me though ... since the Julian Assange debacle (Wikileaks), VAMWorld is not a site I can visit during the workday. I have to wait to get home. If it's an 1878 I can normally do it without VW.

Another caveat ... I'm more than happy to help until you get to the point that you are competing with me on ebay.

For coins in-hand a 10x loupe would work better to view the smaller pick-up points (PUPs).

For photographs the larger the file, the better. For me to see the small stuff the photo needs to be around 250K or larger and in-focus. Of course lighting is very important, too.

Here's my technique for online photos:
- Create a folder somewhere to download these and download only to this folder. Download the images to the folder (obverse and reverse)and any close-ups provided.
- Open the folder and right-click on the file and select "open with" ... here's where there's some divergence ... I have MS Office installed and I open with MS Office. This is a great all around image viewer as it has a convenient sizer at the bottom and I can "tweak" the image easily by clicking the "edit image" button at the top. That opens up a menu allowing me to lighten/darken the image and increase contrast. By using these two tools some PUPs jump out on the image.
- For 1878-P I determine the # of tailfeathers, long/short nock, rev of 78 or 79, broken/complete 'r', open/closed 'o', etc. Here's the link to my "By the numbers" tutorial from a couple years back https://goccf.com/t/48638
- You're trying to reduce the number of candidates to research. If it's an 8TF, look at the feather configuration between the eagle's legs and wings and compare to the examples shown in the tutorial. Match the configuration and check the VAMs listed for each. If it's a 7/8 TF count the number of exposed TF's under the 7 showing and also look at the underneath of the olive branch above the arrow feathers. If you don't see any underlying TF's, first check for Vams 30, 31 and 45. Next go to the B1 reverses. etc. ... follow the tutorial.

I know it seems cumbersome, but you'll be amazed at how fast you can remember the stuff after several attempts.

Don't forget to delete the pics from your folder when done and empty the recycle bin every so often.

in a BIG way! I let an 1888-O VAM7A in what appeared to be strong AU get away from me yesterday.... I think it would/will have a POP of 1. SIGH.....

I have recently been introduced to "vamming" and have been searching my morgans using the vamworld website. I have found an 1882-p VAM 28 early die state. The website says this "extremely elusive" EDS has only 3 known specimens. The coin is raw and suspect it would grade high au, possibly an ms 60-61. I have been unable to find any kind of price for this coin and would probably be interested in selling it. Can anyone give me an idea of the value of this coin? Thanks!