79s VAMmed!

Great work!

But...




No, no they don't. This VAM is neither rare nor significant. Interest and Rarity figures are essentially guess on Leroy Van Allen's part at the moment he certifies the VAM. As regards rarity, time has proven him to be quite accurate in his estimations, with very few exceptions. However....R-5 isn't that rare for a Morgan.

PCGS charges a significant chunk of money to attribute a VAM. The submitter either didn't know VAMs existed, or chose not to put the money into this one. Keep in mind, you don't submit a Morgan for grading and VAM designation unless you already know what VAM it is - that's how VAMmers are.

VAMming is essentially still in its' infancy. Except for a very small percentage of varieties which enjoy wide popularity, we really don't know the true rarity of the overwhelming majority of them. Understanding just how many Morgans are still extant, it will be a long time indeed before the true rarities are known. Unlikely in my lifetime and probably yours (not knowing how old you are).

In the meantime, popularity/demand tends to be based on unique features as opposed to known rarity. 1878-P is an exception - the issue has been studied extensively and we've a fairly clear idea of what's actually rare. That's because of the 8TF, 7/8 and B1 Long Nock varieties, each of which enjoy a rabid following. Many of them the same people. One of those, me.

Your best clue as to the interest level in your variety is whether or not it appears on one of the published "Top" lists. The original list, the Top 100, has been around long enough for some of its' members to have proven fairly common if still striking. For instance, the 1888-O VAM-4 "Hot Lips" is an amazing show of doubling, but so common that at least one individual has assembled a complete grading set of them.

The demand is created by the number of collectors that find a given coin interesting,-vs- the number of coins in the market place. I high number of coins available will kill the premium even if their are a good number of collectors in the market place as well. Grade comes into play many times on a given VAM or for that matter most any other coin. As Dave said Hot Lips are all over the place, this die pair had a very long production life. But High grades AU-58 and up are much, much rarer and command a good deal of premium as the coin has a lot of interest and much few numbers of higher grade coins then the demand.

I think what Dave was saying is, as the market flows with changing likes and dis-likes the "(I) factor or interest" will not be a static number. That is also the case with the rarity factor. A good case in point is the 1882 CC Vam-3d, this is a very late die state die break. Under normal circulation the "R" factor could well of been right. But the Government turned out too of had bags of them, that where released in GSA holders. Go on E-Bay right now and you will find 5 of them with out a problem, so many more survived then the "general rule of thumb". So instead of having a premium it's just a 1882 CC. What is funny is I have never Seen or Heard of an VG,XF or AU Vam-3d yet, so if you found one in VF, it could well hold a premium for a Low ball collector.

So as more people start Vamming the population of any given VAM is open to change with few exceptions! Collect what you like, die cracks, clashed coins, over dates or doubled ears. With Vamming there is a great number of things to look for and in this case you as a collector decides what you like. It is like a never ending Easter Egg Hunt!