A New die marriage for the 1878 Morgan Dollar had been discovered by Kenneth Robb,  a collector whose primary interest center around Vam varieties for the popular Morgan Silver Dollar series.

When a Morgan or Peace Dollar is attributed with a VAM number, this means it is one of the recognized varieties that are listed in the Encyclopedia of Morgan & Peace Dollars.

This book was written by Leroy Van Allen & George Mallis — their initials make up the abbreviation VAM.

Each different date/mint combination has it’s own set of varieties and VAM numbers.  VAM-4 would be the 4th listed variety for that specific date/mint.  A VAM-4 for one date/mint will not be the same for a different date/mint.

Each of these VAMs has its own rarity & interest factor.  A rare variety with a high interest factor will be quite valuable — a common, low-interest variety may not have any premium at all.  The rarity and interest factors are listed in the encyclopedia, but prices are not.

Vam collectors are passionate about their specialty, and this is the first new discovery of a new die marrige for a 1878 with B1 reverse that has been reported in the past 45 years.

First posted on the Coin Community message boards on October 21st, and then on the Vamword website several hours later, the  coin initially had collectors stumped in trying to reconcile the die charactoristics with the then known Vam Varieties. It was suggested by several collectors that the coin be sent to Vam expert Leroy Van Allen for inspection and attribution.

On October 26th, the following news reportedly arrived from Mr. Van Allen:

NEW 1878 P B1 DIE VARIETY LISTING
In late October 2010, Kenneth Robb sent a nice condition PL 1878 P with B1 type reverse that had the II/I 6 obverse of VAM 80. However, he pointed out that the reverse die didn’t match the reverse die cracks of VAM 80 and also didn’t have the die chips on the eagle’s right wing. Furthermore, the reverse die didn’t seem to match any of the known B1 reverse listings. (more…)

Legend Numismatics is proud to announce the outright purchase of the Brian Sonnier Collection of colored dollars and CC GSA coins.

Brian is a long time collector (known to many as GSAGUY). You may have seen him set up at shows back in the early to mid 90’s to just display his coins.

He started his work on this incredible collection over 20 years ago. It did not matter whether it was a colored Morgan or a 91CC GSA, he had to have the best and wildest looking. The results are mind-boggling.

This collection blows away ALL other colored dollar sets that we have ever seen (yes, this collection in some ways is wilder than Sunnywood). There is every type of ORIGINAL coloration pattern. The colors mimic the wildest brightest rainbows-and yes, there are tons of reds and greens.

This was not a collection assembled overnight. Major collections were cherry picked, every auction was checked out, and he had several dealers always “on the hunt” so he could get the best of the best colored coins.

Unlike recent major colored collections to have hit the market, these coins are NOT near color misses or watered down grade wise. They also are not over graded as 95% of the collection was raw! And we did pay well in excess of $10,000.00 for more than one 80S-82S $1!!!!!!!!!

A small portion of his CC GSA collection was purchased in partnership with long time CC dealer Doug Sharpe (Aspen Rare Coins) of Sarasota Florida.

Doug as well has known Brian for many years. Since GSA’s were not our strong point, we knew Doug was the right dealer to assist us. As for the remainder of the CC’s, Brian loves them too much wanted to happily keep that part of his collection (believe us, we tried hard to buy them).

We thank Brian for keeping his promise to us over the years. Sitting at his dinning room table, the negotiations took minutes. It was tough for him to sell, but he knows the coins are going to be placed in the best homes. We have not stopped drooling and looking at the coins! Every single coin is a memorable MONSTER!

Additional Images and availability can be found on the Legend Numismatics Website

Legend Numismatics, a coin dealer specializing in high-quality, rare U.S. coinage, announced the sale of the entire Sunnywood “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” Toned Morgan Dollar Collection to a private collector who wishes to remain anonymous. Financial details were not released, but Legend spokesperson Laura Sperber acknowledged that it was a “multi-million dollar transaction” and that the collection was sold intact.

The Sunnywood Collection (Circulation Strikes from 1878-1921 including three important varieties) was painstakingly assembled over a period of several years by Douglas Kurz, a long-time collector who is a successful businessman and former concert pianist. Bucking the market trend of preference for “white” Morgan Dollars, he decided to put together a complete set of Morgans with “attractive, original color, at least on the obverse.”

Prominently featured in the PCGS Set RegistrySM (www.PCGS.com/SetRegistry), the Sunnywood Collection, consisting exclusively of PCGS-graded coins, gained additional notoriety at the January 2009 FUN Show, the February and May 2009 Long Beach Expos, and in advertisements in Coin World and other numismatic publications.

One interesting point is that the most attractive pieces in terms of color and eye appeal are not necessarily the highest-graded pieces. Sunnywood strikes a balance between color and technical grade, so Set Registry ranking has sometimes been sacrificed for the sake of overall eye appeal.

Many collectors consider the Sunnywood Collection to be the finest set of toned Morgans ever assembled.

The collection includes many early common dates (between 1878 and 1888) and some later dates (such as 1896, 1899-O and 1904-O) that can be found with dramatic and vibrant multi-colored mint-bag toning. There are many dates, however, that simply do not exist with colorful toning. Those dates were sought instead with attractive original patination (the 1900-S and 1901-S are good examples).

Laura Sperber Comments:

In my mind, this is one collection that should not even exist. When Doug originally approached me about building the set with him, I did not think an all-colored Morgan set that nice was even possible to build. Point blank, I told him not to do it.

As time went on, I watched Doug work on the project. He was gracious enough to let Legend help him add a coin or two to this magnificent set. (more…)