Need Opinions On Morgan VAMs Please

I'm going to answer this with a stream-of-consciousness sharing of how I do it when I see one of these. It'll probably take a while.

OK, 1880-O. I know those have differing size mint marks, and I know VAMworld breaks them don by size. So, Small O, I know which list I'm looking at when I get there (I don't have the page open yet.

First, where's the date? 2-1/2 denticles from the neck vee. Normal Date.

Clashing? Nope. Obvious die cracks? Nope.

Mint mark location? Normal-to-high, centered, tilted right. Maybe a little thick on the left. Doubled? Dunno, maybe not but remember that. That might be enough right there, let's go look.

http://www.vamworld.com/1880-O+Reverses

Start at the first one, skim down for tilted MM's. Oh, crud. "MM Needed." A lot of those. Houston, we have a problem. Half of the mint marks aren't shown, I'll have to read listings instead of picking it out of the title copy, and my chances just dropped below 50% of getting it at all.

So, back through from the top, looking for features mentioned in the title copy to compare to your pics, and maybe I don't have to read individual listings.

Nope. Not really. So, here's the point at which it's just_plain_tedious. Some of the listings have plainly obvious wrong mint marks, I can eliminate them, but from here on in I'm just reading listings and comparing to your coin. Often, I load both Firefox and Chrome, the threaad open in one and VAMworld in the other, both halved to fit on my monitor. <3 2560x1440.

I do that for many, many of the coins posted here for attribution. It's not about brilliance, just hard slogging work. I've probably read every page on VAMworld more than once to respond to these posts, and I have a terrible memory. If I tell you I've tried and failed, that means I've read every single word posted on VAMworld about your coin, that day, specifically for your post. Multiply that by about two thousand, and that's what I do in this forum.

Now I'm going to go start reading.

I wrote this so you and everyone else reading will understand that I'm only doing the same thing you could be doing. I don't know much you don't - I have a clinically-poor memory. I don't retain this stuff. I have to do it anew every_single_time.

See you in a bit.

Next thing: Have a look at the link I posted, and check out a couple of the doubled date VAMs to get an idea of what sort of optical resolution is required to see this stuff. Of the 5000 or so known VAMs, at least half of them cannot be attributed without images of that clarity and resolution.

Thank you SsuperDdave :) Do you prefer to stick to vamworld or are their other sites you use?

The confusion is half the fun... and half the frustration!

You're very welcome, but this isn't complete altruism on my part. None of you have learned more than I in the last decade of doing this. There's no choice but to learn when you have to teach others. It's glorious, and I'll do it for as long as someone's still here to ask questions. Above all else, this is a hobby of knowledge, and the ones who like it the best are the ones who enjoy learning.