As we ended the year and look back a lot happened and we can only hope that there will be an equal level of activity in 2019.

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VSS Submissions

We have four coins to send to Leroy for analysis and that needs to get going in January.  Hopefully there is a little something new in the group.

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There are five VAM's that are associated with Reverse Die n and we are turning our attention to these five this month.

The five VAM's are:

30 - Doubled 1-1, Earlobe, Reverse Legend & Motto

37 - Doubled Reverse Legend & Motto

37A - Doubled Reverse Legend & Motto, Clashed Obverse n, us

37B - Doubled Reverse Legend & Motto, Beveled Field STAT & AM

59 - Doubled Reverse Legend and Motto

VAM's 37, 37A, 37B, and 59 are all associated with an Obverse Die 1, whereas VAM 30 is associated with Obverse Die 19.  The differentiation between VAM's 37, 37A, and 37B relate to clashing and field beveling.

We have adequate study material for all but VAM 59 which is one of our discoveries and where a single coin exists.  For VAM 30 we have 19 coins, VAM 37 10 coins, VAM 37A 6 coins, and for VAM 37B 9 coins.  While there are a wide range of grades we have Mint State examples for each VAM.

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These VAM's can have some overlap in description and if there are any misclassified coins this is our chance to examine them and straighten out any confusion.

Since the whole purpose of this web site is education, and we acquired all these over a six year period, the likelihood of misclassification is pretty high.

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At times in this analysis I felt like I was back in the Clinton years where it depended on what your definition of "is" is.

With the "Beveled Field" descriptor it seems to be in the eye of the beholder.  On all 37, 37A, and 37B coins there is a highly polished area just above STA at the denticles that obviously blends down to a new field level.

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This is accompanied by a rough area above ES OF which also seems to be beveling of a different sort.

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VAM 30 - Doubled 1-1, Earlobe, Reverse Legend & Motto

VAM 30 should be a pairing of Obverse Die 19 with Reverse Die n.  This is the only designated use of this obverse die, although there are seven other "Doubled Ear"  variety designations.  According to VAMworld documentation the reverse die of this coin is shared with VAM 59.

VAM 30 is not rare and we have nineteen examples.  All of the examples show very superficial die cracks to the left of the point of the bust.  However, this seems to be very early cracking and and is really difficult to locate on some coins.

We will classify this pattern as DCO1

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The reverse does not exhibit any die cracks on any of our examples.

We will classify this pattern as DCR0

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In theory these three VAM's are different states of the same dies.  We have no doubt that there are mix ups in the identification of individual coins and this is our chance to straighten them out (hopefully).

Where die cracks point out inconsistencies we will look for other identification PUPs to see if those will help.  We have studied just about every feature on these coins over the years, so hopefully the answers are buried in the web site and we just need to dig them out.

While going through all this we will probably need to reclassify some coins, so you might catch us in that process.

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VAM 37 - Doubled Reverse Legend & Motto

This VAM should be another pairing of Obverse Die 1 and Reverse Die n.  We currently have ten coins identified as VAM 37 and it will be interesting in this analysis to see if the identification holds up.  When the VAM description only refers to the reverse, the obverse can be overlooked, leading to other die pairing issues.

Examining the ten coins, five have similar obverse die cracks and five do not.  Is this die state or something else?

We will classify this pattern as DCO2

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The die crack is not always this long, but it is always there for these five coins:  28502807, 82490304, 82490324, 82940469, and 84326424.

None of these coins exhibit any die cracks on the reverse so we also give them a designation of DCR0.  Please remember that we are grouping them on die crack characteristics only at this point.

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VAM 37A - Doubled Reverse Legend & Motto, Clashed Obverse n, us

This VAM should be another pairing of Obverse Die 1 and Reverse Die n.  We currently have six coins identified as VAM 37A.  This VAM has the same description issue only referring to the reverse feature, but with the clash twist.

For the six coins we have classified as VAM 37A, all six exhibit the same obverse die crack pattern.  So far the pattern is always as complete as shown in the coin below.

We will classify this pattern as DCO3

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All of our VAM 37A coins exhibit a distinct reverse die crack pattern that may include the entire circumference of the coin or be close to a full pattern.

We will classify this pattern as DCR1

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The clash is visible on both the obverse and reverse of the coin.  On all of our VAM 37A coins there is some field beveling as in VAM 37B.  But apparently this was not considered the dominant feature when the VAM was discovered.

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Just to help sort all this out we are going to show what we believe the die cracks show us and how the coins are grouped.  The coins are grouped below as we now have them classified either VAM 30, 37, 37A, 37B, or 59.

37B - Doubled Reverse Legend & Motto, Beveled Field STAT & AM

This VAM should be another pairing of Obverse Die 1 and Reverse Die n.  We currently have nine coins identified as VAM 37B.  This VAM should be the same as VAM 37 but with the added twist of the "Beveled Field."

But these coins sorted themselves out differently as we went through the analysis.  The dominant obverse is the DCO3 and the dominant reverse is DCR1.  This makes these dies more closely aligned with the current VAM 37B than any other VAM under study.

But there is more work to do with VAMs 37, 37A, and 37B to examine extent of repolishing and minor traits to see if these are different states of die use or different dies.

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Some of the final sorting out will have to come from the definition of the "Beveled Field."  This feature is present more times than not, so as a distinguishing feature between the VAMs it might not stand alone.

Over time we have tended to reclassify coins as 37 or 37B depending on our opinion about the beveled field issue and this may not have been an appropriate shifting as the dies will show.

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59 - Doubled Reverse Legend and Motto

This VAM should be another pairing of Obverse Die 1 and Reverse Die n.  We currently only  one coin, the discovery coin, to use for identification.

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The discovery coin does not exhibit any die cracks on either the obverse or reverse, so for this discussion a DCO0 and DCR0.

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We always hate to criticize our own discoveries, but we think this one may need review.  For sure it does not relate to the other five and the legend and motto doubling, if they are there, is not consistent with the others.

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Either way there is a lot more work to do with VAM 59.

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