Ok first off J Roberts has this as some type of man made
Retained Cud. Leroy Van Allen has had this coin 2 times with the first being when I sent it to him and the second time when John sent it to him again.
The coin has port mint damage and Ash H and I believe it was caused by someone trying to flatten the edge of the coin. On many
Retained Cuds the coin edge is not flat, as can be seen on the photos posted below of a
Cud and
Retained Cud of a Quarter I busted out of an ANACS AU-58 holder.
Some folks have suggested heat, so we have done some tests on 1896 Morgans that would never grade and they where only worth scrap so it made sense. The outcome of the tests, and the tests being a Jeweler's fine tip torch as a plumbers torch will burn the whole coin. we tried to just soften the planchet as well as melting a small section several ways are a Bust. Heat transfer to the coin could not be limited to a small area, and the silver discolors from brown to milky white and cant be dipped off. So the artifacts creation is not heat related.
Ash and I agree that the side rim damage came after the retained area, and that it looks like an edge drop on cement or asphalt as well as an attempt most likely to flatten the edge. The reeding is intact with no tooling. In the "S" photo you can see the inner recesses of the "S" where the field inside the letters relief is not tooled nor is the lower section of the letter deformed, you can clearly see the double die "S" that is found on all 1878
VAM 82 coins and we have put MS 64 coins detail next to this and there is no deflection in this coin compared to EDS of this die pairing.
As far as the 1878
VAM 82 and now VAM-82a. The Obverse die is only found on this coin, it was a 1 uses and done, in the annals of 1878
Morgan dollars 1 and done dies happened due to die damage. The
VAM 82 vary late die state is known to have a die crack running from the viewers right side second star up to the second to last star as well as having a large
Retained Cud area in the denticals at the second star. This coins break has a light fracture running beyond the 5th star and past the edge point of the 6th star as well as having an extremely pronounced
Retained Cud in the denticles under the 2nd star where this break starts. So its a vary late die state of the VAM-82
Again the coin has
PMD, No Question about it! Leroy has called it a straight-line
Retained Cud, I would like Mike D to chime in on this as, if the
Retained Cud is deemed to be Man Made...The How it was done is real important.
the 1st photos are of the retained and full
Cud quarter
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