How Do You Decide Which Morgan/Vam To Purchase

Hi Tom, Gene here, your questions is a FANTASTIC QUESTION....I truly hope others will chime in....
FIRST OFF one must consider, that all of the Morgan series are VAMS.
I remember WAY back when when my uncle came to town he gave each of us boys a silver dollar and we rushed to the general store......YES GENERAL store...we had them back then...LOL....bought a bucks worth of penny candy too!
WHAT slipped threw my fingers back then? what a thought.....They are my favorite coin today....And I'm not a 100 years old LOL....
While some have the deep pockets to collect every VAM for every year..Not me...others follow the top 100/hit lists
which in general are there to promote the collectors interests,, MY meaning is, it doesn't mean they are top money getter's...they are however the coins for some to collect to have some sort of accepted collection.
Take the Kimpton 12....found on vamworld...these are nice coins that have lots of the clashing bells and whistles, meaning for coins that have errors, these coins have lots of clashing and what not....
"DEEP POCKETS" prospective....SOme have the money to collect say the 1878 series, with over 200 VAM'S in that year alone....yet many of us have slightly smaller pockets....WHAT should we collect...
IMHO...what ever tickle's your fancy ....one must first consider .....what your collecting...My meaning is "FOR ME" in general, I would like to someday collect the whole series of all mint marks.......those 1893 to 1895 coins really cost a bunch.....SOME would collect one coin from every year...thats cool too...
in any event the thing is with any year or mint mark, one could simply "try to collect the coolest" coin for
style of collecting your going for.....the fact is there are over 4,000 VAMS known...for ruffly 27 years of
Morgan production....1878 to 1904 is about 26 years and then you have the 1921. so say 27 years....
ONE THING,, many of us have considered with lesser pockets is to collect what you think is a cool coin...
AND knowledge of the over all concept is most important....There are big priced finds out there...if one knows and see's you can make some profit....YET THIS is truly still a hobby... and still remains on how much your willing to LEARN, with what ever means $$$$ you have, to collect and fill what ever series you decide to collect....MANY have heard of VAMS and thought .....THE BANKROLL......its worth a fortune...Get real they are all VAMS......
I LOOK...to expand my knowledge, which is well beyond my pocket book, and return it you you all on this forum, as I am just like you, just have a bit more experience....and have also learned NOT to be caught up in the VAM THING like they all will take you to the bank....
I collect,,,Mostly R6 and above BUT that doesn't mean these coins are on there want lists, so I can cash in, Actually I'm not trying to cash in..my goal is to fill my collections with good vams over the idea of just filling the holes in my album.....
I hope this has helped you in your understanding of VAMS and the idea of what to collect but more over that you have to get knee deep into vams to understand whats happening...Forget a quick fix.....this VAM thing has a learning curve...but more over,,,,if you don't delve deep....
a suggested VAM rating of say I2/R5 ------------low interest R5 not highly sought...YET there are some coins with low ratings that have "few" known examples.....This is the importance of knowledge....Gene

If you're just an average collector without an enormous existing holding of correctly-attributed VAMs - or access to highly-accurate macro- and microimaging equipment with which you can post sharply-detailed images at VAMworld for assistance from those who *do* have these varieties - you'll be doing well to correctly attribute 30% of your Morgans. Some years are far better than others, of course.

VAMs with "smoking gun" attributes are a fairly small percentage of the thousands of varieties known.

one of the safest way to learn about VAM's is to study and learn how to identify your own coins, as it costs you nothing but your time and research of what is a VAM, and what features
get the go for a VAM listing...This will give you time to decide on what path will work for you...In the past I decided to collect anything I could find,,,but it really is a crap shoot if luck will pass your way.....even then if you don't have your VAM skills up, you wouldn't know a 1878 vam44 if it was in from of you.....Start with the basics and observe and "STEAL" the knowledge others freely share from there questions....Lists and other directions are worthless if you don't know how the basic principles of what desireable vams are....My personal goal is to find nice vams for each year and mint within the Morgan series....It will require at the minimum, a cheap dino lite
usb microscope...so you can capture clear close up photo's to use as pick up points to decipher the VAM thing...
always start with date location and mint mark locations to narrow your results...then the microscope will help you find pick up points to further the designation of the known or unknown VAM...this is the basic process...Good luck...

Sounds like some very good advice. I will be checking out more of my Morgans this weekend.

I do spend hours a day at some local coin shop, and have been looking at a lot of their
Morgans. I really am starting to see more and more.