Newbi, 1926 4 Rays Peace dollar

[Mendozaco]

New to the forum. Hope I don't make a fool with the first post.. lol:

I noticed 4 rays on the reverse of a 1926 peace dollar under the ONE. I searched all around the web and I can't find information about the 1926-P dollar with 4 Rays. All I found was the high relief 1922 Peace and the 1935 with 4 Rays. I jumped the gun and send the piece to NGC for certification.

The coins were part of a set I purchased in an estate sale here in Maryland. The lot included 5 coins. 1921, 1921D mercury dimes, 1888-0 Morgan and two Peace dollars 1922 and 1926. I purchased the lot because of the mercury dimes, but I was surprised when I researched the other three coins. Both the peace dollars had the following notes noted on the back of plastic sleeves "4r" and the Morgan has Xfc. Both the 1922 and 1926 have 4 rays under the ONE. I sent the Morgan to PCGS and received a surprise.

1888-O PCGS MS62+ VAM 1B Scarface

Does anyone have any information about the 4 Rays 1926 peace dollar?

[PetesPockets55]

Congratulations on the great pick at the estate sale. Even without knowing what you paid I would guess it turned out very well for you. That is some nice toning on "Ol' Scarface"! :thumbsup:
Sorry I can't help you with the "4 Rays" tho.

[Daniel]

Nice find!

The 1926 Peace might be a new VAM since I don't know of any 4 ray versions of any date, not sure where you got your info. There's a 1926 short ray and there's a 1935 extra ray, but you will have to post the link to your research on the 4 ray coins.

I would stick to one website for VAM information and that's vamworld.com and here's the link http://www.vamworld.com/1926-P+VAMs

I also host a Morgan Dollar website and it has VAM values that mhonzell gratefully completed for me and here's the link http://morgandollar1.com/

[Mendozaco]

I will keep you posted with the NGC progress and post their pictures once they become available for this forum review.

How does a new VAM gets registered and acknowledged once the pictures are available? What are the steps?

[mhonzell]

The 1926 Peace might be a new VAM since I don't know of any 4 ray versions of any date

I think he's talking about the difference between the reverse on a 1921 and 1922 as compared to the others.
The 1921 was originally designed to be "High Relief". It broke a lot of dies, quickly. In 1922, they lowered the pressure of the strike and made it "Medium Relief", but it still broke a lot of dies and started looking "mushy". In 1923, the reverse was redesigned to allow a lower strike pressure without completely losing all the details, this reduced the number of rays under the "ONE" to three. (There are other small differences... ie. look at the length of the rays above the eagle.)

1921 Reverse HR - 4 rays under ONE

1923 Reverse - 3 rays under ONE

A fourth ray under the "ONE" would imply a '21 or '22 reverse die. Unfortunately, it could be a lot of other things... die break, scratch, etc. We'd need that photo.

[Mendozaco]

I will post them as soon as NGC slabs the coins and provides pictures. Im too anxious about the photos and the forum fee back. Thanks for sharing.