Numismatic Forensic's

So....were you just testing us, or just wearing us out, or waiting to see just how silly we could get by trying to figure it out based on online photos of two of the four coins?

yes and the photo's clearly show the question at hand........while the eds should show the progressive rusting, and yet the LDS SHOULD show the eliminationtion of the rust... it does not....and the photo's show as the progression continues,,,,in mid state....there is the question....as we see the EXACT rust imprints are there...but more advanced..which proof beyond a doubt that this is...AN ULTRA RARE EDS

you are so into forensics ZEE...

I believe there were two separate 'onset' events that caused these two stages. Dave touched on it when he said the dies were left in the press. I agree with that thesis. In fact, we have a researcher looking into maintenance issues of whether or not the Morgan and Orr presses were down for any appreciable length of time.
I have also asked him to look into whether the New Orleans mint was closed for any appreciable time. It turns out 1887 was the third most active year for hurricanes in history.
No radar in those days. The weather got progressively worse and likely the mint sent their workers home. At lest two and possibly a third hurricane affected New Orleans, Louisiana that year. Either way, the dies were left in the press and when the press was restarted, the workers were only interested in getting coins out the door. The other thing that was noticed was the pitting pattens matched on both die states.

Probably not a very good question either, unless it can be determined that there are two stages of pitting.



It doesn't sound to me like anyone is very clear on whether the pitting is staged, or progressive....(There really is a very big difference believe it or not).



Dave did not say that.....He mentioned it as a hypothetical theory only.....a "what if" sort of thing.



I'll be sure to hold my breath on that one.



You would have to have lived in New Orleans or another Gulf area to realize how silly that sounds...People do not go running away from hurricanes as you may think, hurricanes take only a few hours to pass, and when they have, it is back to life as normal.

Regardless of whether or not the dies were left in the presses for extended periods of time due to hurricanes or mechanical breakdowns or any other reason..... If your purpose is to determine if 22A EDS or 22A LDS came first, it really does not take too much exertion of thought to see the obvious (unless a person actually believes that pitting (down in a die device) is a reversible possibility).

Since there seems to be more of the LDS than the one EDS, Why does PCGS have the EDS listed as a Minor Variety?

According to VAMworld, the EDS was only known as of May 2010. 8 months is far too brief a time for PCGS to react to anything short of a fire in the President's office.

The top 100 Morgan dollar Varieties: The VAM keys by Michael S. Fey Ph.D and Jeff Oxman was published in 1997.
1887-O VAM 22A pitted reverse is a top 100 coin. In the thirteen years since the publication of The VAM Keys, this is the only early die state specimen known at this time.

From the time I acquired the coin I was curious about the pitting on the reverse and the operative mechanism of what caused the pitting and whether the pitting matched a later die state.