Very neat, I remember a story I heard (can't remember by whom), that had stopped in the Hayes museum for the purpose of seeing if they did have the first dollar, they were able to find the holder but not the coin at the time. So the coin showed up, it was misplaced or had fallen out in to some other archives? The story may have been related by the late Pete Bischal as he was known for researching the 1878-P 8TF
VAM 9.
I've owned quite a few of them but never an uncirculated one. I've had a very high end AU and possibly MS example slip through my fingers in a botched
ebay deal way back in the 1996 or 1997. I was the only person in the deal that knew what the coin was, as none of the others collected nor knew about VAMs, also included were a 1878-P 7/8 TF
VAM 44 and a Long Nock 1878-S. That botched deal is painful to recall.
Love to see that this coin is back with it's holder, I'd love to see an article written up in a major Numismatic paper, magazine, etc.
I did end up purchasing Pete's
VAM book from his estate, but unfortunately it has no annotations nor notes from him included, the
VAM book is autographed by him, George Mallis and Leroy Van Allen, so that is nice.
"Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin" - Aaron R. Feldman - "And read it" - Me 2013!
ANA Life Member #3288 in good standing since 1981, ANS, Early American Coppers Member (EAC), Colonial Coin Collectors Club member (C4), Conder Token Collector Club member (CTCC), Civil War Token Society (CWTS) member, Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) & Numismatic Bibliomania Society member (NBS), USMex, Member in good standing, 2¢ variety collector.
See my want page:
http://goccf.com/t/140440
Edited by westcoin
07/25/2023 3:28 pm