Mark Stilson

Another tough year/mint. 1893 Philadelphia

Bump Next coins I have are 1765 and 1762

Down to 17 year/mint mark morgans to have one for every circulated morgan. Dealer had a 1893 S in about ef grade today and at least I got to see it. That ones going to be a killer! He had several other coins I'm missing, but they will have to wait.

Well, got another "tough" one for my year/mint marks a 1903 O Morgan dollar in about ms63. Only problem my camera is DOA so all I have is a cell phone camera. And so not much of a picture. Edit: got a new camera changed pictures.

bump

I'm thinking split grade. with the reverse 12 and obverse 8. But not sure if its the picture. The shield looks too worn to be a 10 or more. The feathers on the reverse look good enough to make a 12+

Thanks YOC 1772 We got a whole little group of them. Next ones I have 1765 and 1762

Bump, next one I have is 1772.

Now all we have to do is some how keep this going. 1783 anyone? Next coins in lower 1700 dates I have is 1772, 1765, 1762, 1740

Bump.

1903 S VAM-7 Slanted Date, S Tilted Left 7 III2 2 - C4c (Slanted Date, S Tilted Left) (189) I-2 R-3

For Dollar trades.

Who knows with a good eye you might spot a new variety.

Probably the popularity of the morgan. Also with a larger coin it is easier to pick up differences. Barber dimes are going to be really tough unless they are higher grade ones. The morgan in lower grades sometimes are tough or sometimes impossible to ID varieties.

My little routine is to bring my reading glasses, a 10x magnifying glass, a 30x loupe and my redbook. My Redbook with the coins I have marked to look first for year/mints I need. I look at date (Far date, near date, slanted, high, low, and doubling. Also in denticles below date.) , mint mark (placement, high, low, slanted and lines in around mint mark to look doubling or repunched mint marks.) clashing (By neck, at "V' of hair toward the bottom, below tail feather and in field above eagle. The clashing has to involve letters transfered. ) Those are the pretty sure bets on finding VAM's. Now they may not be top 100 or hot 50's, but since I am interested in all VAM's it works out. Next I do a over all scan for polish marks (On Morgans several VAMs have polish lines on the eagle.), and doubling. Or just odd marks. (When I first started collecting morgans I did not go thru all that and now that I have gone thru ones I already bought I spotted several VAMs I had originally.) It most of the time takes me about a minute maybe a little over to do this, so it really does not take much time per coin. That pretty much covers the majority of VAM's. I use to carry a small list of hot 50 and top 100, but stopped that just because of convenience. I thought about condensing the list a little more and making it smaller for ease though. Anyways I bring them home then start the true Id'ing. Some VAM's I do remember easy enough. Heres a couple I always look for. Any 1878 I always look at the the tail feathers to see if a 7/8 type and the arrows nock, every Carson City 1890 gets flipped over immediately to check for the bar. (I have 2 of these what weren't originally Id'ed.) Like I said in another post I do pick up coins I have not positively ID'ed. I would love to find a new VAM and get to send it to Leroy Van Allen to get a new type confirmed. Having a discovery piece even if its not a top 100 or hot 50 would be a blast.

Dropped by to exchange some coins and found coins already in the bin. 2 Chuckie Cheese tokens, one 2004 Canadian 25 cent poppy, and one 1964 d silver quarter, and one 1964 dime. (Along with about a dollars worth of assorted normal change. ) Those Chuckie Cheese tokens must really make in a bunch of machines. (2003 and 2004)

At least its not cleaned. Down to 18 year/mint.

Another missing year/mint for my collection a 1891 Carson City Morgan. It is a lower grade but was the right price.

A couple local flea markets around here have some good dealers also. Theres a real nice little coin shop at Traders Village in Houston. The guy has some nice coins for a flea market and will do a deal on purchases. Coles Flea Market on Telephone road has a coin dealer there. (Been a while since I've been there.) Real nice guy kind of slim pickings though. He's been there about 30 years. A real pain to get parking (They charge for parking. ) and its a pain to get around the market though.

I'm going to hit them tomorrow. Only thing I don't like about them is trying to find a parking spot around there. It surprised me they missed the 1896-P VAM-19 8 in Denticles I picked up last week, it was in the bulk uncirculated bin. Most of the time they are real diligent about marking vams.

Houston Numismatic was the place the guy checked out the coin at. What I love now is they added other "bulk" bins. They still have their normal rotating counters. But now they have low grade morgans in one bin. Mid range morgans in another, and bu morgans in airtites in a third. They also still have their cull type coin and assorted silver bin. They pile up their U.S. and foreign mint and proof sets on a cart. For such a small shop they have a monster inventory.

Just finished reading Justcarls post and it got me to thinking about different dealers. A couple of the local dealers I go to are mixed bag. According to who waits on me is going to change what to expect. One of the dealers is a family run deal. The father normally friendly enough but you can tell wants the "Big" sale and very fast at getting distracted if he spots someone come in with a possibly bigger wallet. He does drop the price normally. Then either son is goofy as s*** but nice and can count on at least a discount the size of the tax and maybe any odd change. The daughter really friendly but a stickler on the price marked. One other dealer I go to I'll stay in the background browsing till one sales person comes available. I bought coins from him when he had his own coin/pawn shop 30 years ago. The others are polite enough but just don't seem as personable or interested. One time when I was trying to Id my 1661 GERMANY. Silesia-Liegnitz-Brieg. 3 Kreuzer he spent a lot of time with me trying to help. We went thru several books at that time. Even though he was not able to help me, he really tried. (Got close but no cigar, and thanks again to SlavicScott and belg-jos for the major help Iding it. ) I am not a mega-spender but I do buy consistently. A smile, eye contact can do a whole lot of good on getting a customer to come back.

Ian where are you? Help us out Bud.

I've seen one just like that before. I've remember seeing those at "tourist traps" for sale with a little card. There are some folks who collect those. I see a couple of the Masonic stamp ones going on ebay for 1.99 to 3.99.

Picked up a few more Morgans today. I decided to go with trying to pick up some vams. The first one was already identified at the coin dealer as a 1878 7/8 tail feather they just did not have the full VAM on it. Its a VAM 39 7/8 Tail feather 7/5 variety in about xf condition. The next one was in a "bulk" uncirculated bin. It was not Id'ed. 1896-P VAM-19 "8" in Denticles I did not have any VAMs for 1896 so this one worked out well. This coin is a Top 100 Morgan VAM. 19 III219 · C3a (8 in Denticles) (190) I-3 R-5 Obverse III219– Top of 8 appears in two denticle spaces just below 8 as two raised and curved bars. Date slightly slanted with 1 closest to rim. Close up of 8 in denticles (Only took about 70 shots to get this one picture. ) Close up of wreath on reverse. showing doubling on wreath and branch. The last one I thought might be a vam but I don't think so. At the dealer I thought I spotted a couple markers what might indicate a vam. But at home under closer exam I don't think so. I'll be double checking later. Also in the "bulk" uncirculated bin. 1881 S It does have a nice cartwheel when you move it around though. Added these two to the Morgan VAM thread in the Museum.