1926-S Peace Dollar VAM-4A

Lacks the dot next to the leaf, above the E in PEACE. Not sure where I am with this one yet; let's have a look at the obverse too. Excellent images for VAMming, you're getting the polishing lines nicely.

Lotsa evidence here, but bear with me. I'm multitasking on CCF - can't concentrate on one thing at once to save my life - as well as rebuilding my froze-and-burst toilet feed line (Grrrrr). I'll be hitting this thread regularly on ricochets from other threads.

VAM-1O. Check the ray through the N.

http://www.vamworld.com/1926-S+VAM-1O

No, you don't; your previous attributions prove that you know what it takes to attribute a VAM. From here on in, it's all about not missing the details.

Seriously, there's times I can't attribute; I'm just too distracted to offer enough attention to detail. It requires a singleminded ferocity of concentration. How many other issues have multiple examples with well over 100 different known varieties, and more being found every day?

VAMming is not for the weak.

Morgan VAMs are - quite probably - an open-ended effort with no "completion" possible. The technology associated with hub/die preparation had reached, at that point, a level of technological sophistication such that differentiating between individual Morgan dies in full detail isn't going to happen.

But the job is barely started, even though 5,000 individual VAMs have been identified. This exceeds the known number of die pairs produced (excepting 1921), but of course not the number of potential die marriages and in any case one of the important efforts going forward is the elimination of duplicate identifications - individual VAMs thought unique but in reality only differing stages of other die pairs.

A huge amount of work has been done. It's likely that, in the future, Leroy Van Allen will be remembered as the one man who devoted the largest single individual effort towards any numismatic goal, yet the job he helped start will undoubtedly survive him incomplete and probably by two generations.

Our only hope to even define whether a "completion" goal is possible is to expend equal amounts of effort on the coins, and on recruiting more scholars to the effort. That latter is what we're doing with this forum.

So I have to thank you for participating. Whether you know it or not, you're contributing to (IMO) the greatest task ever undertaken in US numismatics (all respect conceded to the Lincoln Cent folks).

Another one assimilated.

Terrible, isn't it? This is better than any drug, and twice as addictive.

I didn't know what a VAM was before I joined this site. Sure, I had a few Morgans in holders that were designated 7 over 8 strong, 8 over 7, O/S and Alligator eye. I have since figured out I have VAM38, VAM4, VAM5 and VAM12A.
I had no idea how vast this ( VAM)world is and have purchased somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 Morgans since joining CCF, most by variety. I have also backed up and identified many of the Morgans purchased over the years and found a few nice surprises among them to boot.
Thanks again to all the CCF VAMers.

Welcome to the addiction srs77.