Possible VAM? 1883-P

I am getting out my DSLR. I'm sure that will produce some sharper images for you! Thanks again for the patience and assistance.

Welcome to Coin Community, madzen23. An interesting coin for your first thread here.

There are things about the coin which make me worry slightly about its' authenticity. That said, all of those things are within the margin for photographic error (especially with the coin still behind the mylar of the 2x2) of these images so we won't worry about that yet.

The mark has every appearance of a die gouge, and if we stipulate that the mark is raised it becomes the default theory. It wouldn't be the first very similar mark known on Morgans. However, to the best of my knowledge it's not known on any 1883-P's (understanding I haven't looked at every single one of the 40+ known VAMs for the date). The fact that one isn't recorded is no guarantee of anything, of course. This coin could be an unknown die state of a known VAM.

So we will await the dSLR play. I'm particularly interested in what looks like weakness of strike in the wings and front periphery of the hair.

Please let me know if I can provide anything to make it easier to judge. It certainly appears to be raised and thus a die gouge, under magnification. But I defer to the experts on this one. Definitely and interesting specimen.

Thank you again for all the help!

The surfaces of the reverse makes it look cast. Were there extremely rusted dies in 1883?

I don't understand the neck feathers to chest feathers transition either. Fairly sharp at neck, but nothing at chest.

The coin has passed the all of the standard testing. (Magnet, Weight comes up exactly 26.7, and it also passed the "Ring" test). You are the first to comment on the 8's being different sizes. I'd have to agree with you on that for sure. I do plan on sending the coin in for further analysis, so I will keep everyone posted on the results! I greatly appreciate the input. Even if it turns out to be a fake, I've learned a lot through this process. It still baffles me that there would be fakes of such a common date with such a high mintage.