The 1st Morgan Struck!

Interesting post. I would have thought it would be a very high grade being the first coin from a new set of dies.
John1

I sent the curator of artifacts a nice email about Conservation, Grading and Encapsulation of this coin. I mentioned I would pay for all that to be accomplished under my memberships. They also have, (but not on display) an 1878 Proof, which needs Graded and Encapsulated.

I will continue the story as things happen.

Dan

I found this case on their digital archives. I think this case is for the #1 coin or maybe the proof?

Thank you for sharing, what a great "find."

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.



Maybe that's why he didn't take good care of it

I was hoping for a better response about the Conservation, Grading and Display of the this coin...I guess the quest stops here.

The Curator simply had this to say after some minor pleasantries.
"this item is authentic with a history as described in the panels available for public view in the exhibit and it is preserved and displayed according to professional museum industry standards."


Can't win them all...I not a fan of "industry standards". Most standards in my industry are pretty marginal. It's not that hard to go above and beyond the "standards". That was the point in my email to the Curator..."let's take this to the next level". Maybe the next Curator will be a coin lover and it will receive the right amount of attention.

Dan

You don't see a name like O. C. Bosbyshell much anymore!

I wonder if that coin would have the "details" designation becuase it was part of jewelery :)

Very neat, I remember a story I heard (can't remember by whom), that had stopped in the Hayes museum for the purpose of seeing if they did have the first dollar, they were able to find the holder but not the coin at the time. So the coin showed up, it was misplaced or had fallen out in to some other archives? The story may have been related by the late Pete Bischal as he was known for researching the 1878-P 8TF VAM 9.

I've owned quite a few of them but never an uncirculated one. I've had a very high end AU and possibly MS example slip through my fingers in a botched ebay deal way back in the 1996 or 1997. I was the only person in the deal that knew what the coin was, as none of the others collected nor knew about VAMs, also included were a 1878-P 7/8 TF VAM 44 and a Long Nock 1878-S. That botched deal is painful to recall.

Love to see that this coin is back with it's holder, I'd love to see an article written up in a major Numismatic paper, magazine, etc.

I did end up purchasing Pete's VAM book from his estate, but unfortunately it has no annotations nor notes from him included, the VAM book is autographed by him, George Mallis and Leroy Van Allen, so that is nice.