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 Replies: 18 / Views: 2,896 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
673 Posts |
I picked this coin up a couple weeks ago , it is a cleaned coin- but for 18.50 and with the things I saw on this coin, I had to have it. I took a quick look at VAMworld to see if these die gouges might be an identifier, seeing none I will try to get some input here first before I search further. O.k...The weird part of this coin is the reverse. There are cleaning scratches on both sides of this coin, but the obverse has none of the gouges you will see in the pictures, they are all on the reverse. The first picture is of the entire reverse, the blue lines are die cracks (nothing remarkable there, but they might help) the red lines are what I am looking at here, there are quite a few more than I marked in red, but I got tired of marking them and figured you get the point. The yellow marks circle a couple that were visible in the picture without magnification. There are several blow ups of the marks and a couple from a binocular scope. These marks appear to be raised on the coin, not incuse (not scratches on the coin) I think you can tell from the scoped images that this is indeed the case. Is this a known die state for any 1878 ? Edited to add Obverse Picture. The fourth right star has a broken point. Edited again for the tail feathers picture.  For reverse Identification:  The Gouges :    One of the three gouges at the beak appears to continue into the actual wing design, it is the only one that continues into the design     Edited by InfiniteInterest
03/03/2008 9:57 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1934 Posts |
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Member
United States
3242 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1219 Posts |
Start with VAM 134. If other markers match you've got it. Polishing lines. I,ll check the updates for any new polish lines for 1878. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
673 Posts |
Thanks alot for your help, I'll have to get on here this afternoon and start looking. Nice to have somewhere to start ! After that I still have several 21's to attribute- I am sure I'll be back here first  Thanks again. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
547 Posts |
Can you get a close up of the tailfeathers? It looks like you have 7/8 TF reverse.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
673 Posts |
I will get on that right now, I don't see any doubling of the feathers- but I may be missing it...pictures forthcoming.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
547 Posts |
In light of the close up, you're right...The second pic in the original post looked like it may have been, but it could have been that I have been looking at this screen too long also  My opinion? I would wait for Bryan to come along and check it out... |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
673 Posts |
Yea my neck hurts from leaning over my camera the last couple days, getting better though ! And my eyes hurt from looking at every millimeter of this coin...again...and again...and again. I guess if it was not , dare I call it - fun - I would not bother. I really appreciate all the help. Now...back to the loupe....
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Pillar of the Community
United States
527 Posts |
Cleaned or not I would have grabbed this coin as well. I like the file marks on it, very interesting locations. It looks like some of the red lines you have drawn are in die clash locations. Are there any clash marks as well?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
673 Posts |
There are no clash marks on this coin, obverse or reverse. You have to see this in hand, there are probably 50 or more of the die scratches on the reverse of this coin.If I feel real ambitious , I will mark them all and post a pic- that should be interesting. The obverse has NONE of these marks. IMO the obverse is an early die state , there are very very few polishing lines in the usual areas. The low points in the hair are nearly smooth, the area around the cotton bolls is very smooth, between the lips have no polish lines, the nostril has none, incuse liberty has nice even surfaces...This is my deduction as a newbie to this VAM insanity , I hope someone will correct me if I am getting this wrong ! |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
14454 Posts |
I will tell you all the VAM-84's (yours isn't a VAM-84 by the way, just making a observation)I have ever seen show similar gouges like they were marking where the wreath should be and decided to make it shorter or something. Oh and by the way its not a 7/8 because if it was it would have the long nock just a little information to help in your search
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Pillar of the Community
United States
673 Posts |
Thanks Bryan, I was hoping for pictures on VAMworld of something similar, but I could not find any. I will go with the 134 designation , I guess the description of "light " and "isolated" about those polish lines threw me off. I also thought for sure there would be pics of the ones at the Eagles beak, they are so very cool. I looked at 134 early on...guess I should have stuck to it !
I posted a link at VAMworld to here to get some more input, that's two so far for 134 :) Thanks alot everyone !
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4541 Posts |
can someone please enlighten me on what a VAM is? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3507 Posts |
VAMs are numbers assigned to Morgan and Peace dollar coins based upon a system created by two guys named Van Allen and Mallis. VAM....basically it is a really interesting way to catalog coins based upon the dies or combinations of obverse and reverse dies used to strike a coin. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4541 Posts |
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Replies: 18 / Views: 2,896 |
Posted 03/03/2008 07:57 am
