1878 Morgan Dollar Any Variety?

thanks bill069 and yikes! as well! lol There are so many different ones for the 1878 I had no idea! I'm so unsure what I am looking at. :( Are there any members of the forum that are really experienced at this type of thing?

malissa, Nothing really jumps out at me. I can tell you it has the reverse of 1879. There does appear to be clashing on the coin. If any letter transfers happened I can't tell. Denticles are normal, die wear.

Melissa, I will help you with this coin. 1878 Philadelphia mint coins are the most studied dollar coins out there in the market place. First off, the number of tailfeathers is 7. Also, your coin is a short nock, slanted arrow, That puts your coin into the VAM 200 series. After that, look at each listing and that should help you out.

malissadawn and others,

VAM attribution can be a daunting task when first starting out. I've been at it for almost two years now and have learned several shortcuts. The 1878 is my specialty . Here are six steps to narrow your search down for the 1878-P. I must caution though that once hooked, you'll never be the same.


The first step is to isolate the tail feather category (8TF, 7/8TF, Long Nock, 7 TF parallel, or 7 TF slanted)



Once the correct tail feather configuration is determined you can proceed to the appropriate grouping ... here's the 8TF grouping



7/8 TF grouping



B-1 (Long Nock Reverse)



7TF Parallel arrow feather



And finally the 7 TF slanted arrow feather