Morgan and Peace Dollars are among the most popular and widely collected U.S. coins. While many collectors appreciate these coins for their history and beauty, fewer take the time to explore the fascinating varieties of each series. These varieties, known as VAMs, are named after Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis, the researchers who carefully studied and cataloged them by their die marriage.
Learning VAMs can feel like stepping into a whole new dimension of collecting. It’s a field that rewards patience and curiosity, often taking years to master variety attribution. Thankfully, new collectors don’t have to start from scratch! Resources such as the VAMWorld website provide a wealth of information, guides, and images that make this specialized area more approachable.
VAMWorld allows users to “contribute, edit and improve” its listings, continually updated with new discoveries, delisted varieties, renumbered varieties, and other important revisions! It is the most up-to-date listing for Morgan and Peace Dollar varieties. While the site includes a dedicated tab for new collectors, this section is often overlooked. For those just beginning their journey of studying VAMs, I strongly recommend first to read the Definitions and Attribution 101 pages as it will be needed to understand various design changes, date placements, mintmark locations, die clashing and other characteristics of variety attribution and terminology.
At present, VAMs aside, the hobby focuses on errors and varieties with newcomers, in particular, hunting ultra rarities such as 1992/1992-D Close AM or 1982-D Small Date 3.1 grams. Those types of varieties for Morgan and Peace dollars are catalogued in VAMWorld. But we go one step deeper. We not only identify that variety but also the various dies that might have created it and the popularity of those varieties within a variety.
Let’s see how Proxiblog’s Michael Bugeja uses VAMs to show all the various types of 1900-O/CC Morgans. The popularity and value of this Morgan is not only the variety, but the prominence thereof. VAMs 7 through 12 identify the difference in prominence of the overmintmark.
I often stress to newer collectors the importance of learning and understanding the reverse hub types for the Morgan Dollar series. This chart represents all of the reverse hub types used for the series in detail. It mentions only 1878 but is for the entire Morgan series from 1878-1921.
Granted, the above chart might intimidate hobbyists new to VAMs. Let’s simplify everything and show how three different VAM reverses for the 1878 8TF, replete with pickup points:
Developing a strong grasp of these distinctions is invaluable not only for attribution but also for detecting counterfeit pieces, as reverse hub diagnostics can quickly reveal inconsistencies.
In my very first article for Proxiblog, I used VAMs to discover a family of counterfeits that fooled collectors and grading services for decades. I wrote, “The ‘Micro O’ varieties have always been scarce coins to come by, and in 2005, these were deemed counterfeit by PCGS when 3 examples showed repeating circulation marks between the 1896 O VAM-4, 1900 O VAM-5, and 1902 O VAM-3.”
Navigating the VAMWorld website can feel overwhelming for newer collectors, but becomes much easier when utilizing the tools and resources provided. Each date specific page includes a set of guides.
Many collectors focus on the Top 100, Hot 50, and Hit List 40 varieties. These showcase the most popular and valuable varieties, minimizing what is known as “micro-vamming,” or listing insignificant types.
Introducing the Top 100, VAMWorld writes, “Many of these VAMs have entered the mainstream collecting of Morgan dollars; it has become unheard of to claim a complete Morgan dollar collection without including the 1882-O/S, Scarface, Hot Lips, and an 1900-O over CC example among several other varieties.”
Proxiblog emphasizes this with articles on each of those above and more. For instance, click the photo below to go to these VAM varieties that are viewed, simply, as desirable and valuable Morgans:
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You can find more information about types, varieties, errors, grading, bidding and buying in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider buying or gifting the work for a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist blog. Thank you.
