More than a hobby...it's "VAMs and More"!
C. Logan McKechnie is a trial lawyer whose passion of coins began in 1954 as a 12-year-old exploring a box of strange coins while visiting his great aunt in Kentucky. The box was filled with $2.50 gold, half cents, three cents, 20-cent pieces and tons of Indian Head Cents and Shield nickels. His THEN COMPLETE set of nickels was bought at a Dallas coin show by Amon Carter, Jr. and paid for his college education. While in the U.S. Army, his parents sold the remaining items in his collection. After severeral years of not being involved, he picked up a copy of Leroy Van Allen and George Mallis' book. In 1982, he bought a coin store in El Cajon, CA. [The store, Broadway Coins and Stamps, is still in operation.] He moved to Merced from San Diego in 1992 and renewed his love for the personal collection of coins.
For five years, Logan McKechnie collected and identified world coins from every spot on the globe. In 1997, with the publication of Michael Fey and Jeff Oxman's TOP 100, Logan gave away 43 double row boxes of world coins and began the search for the TOP 100 Morgan Dollars. As extras began to build up, he put out one show case with a friend who had a table at the Santa Clara show in 2003. Those extras became "VAMs and More" and currently consists of 14 show cases at most shows on the West Coast and a web page at www.vamsandmore.com that has a complete list of coins for sale and 2,184 (as of July 15, 2008) different VAMs -all slabbed- in his personal collection.
Over the course of the hunt, Logan McKechnie has "cherry-picked" the 1878 VAM 14.20, the finest known 14.18, a couple of 1878 VAM 44's, VAMs 123 and VAMs 189 and an AU-58 PL 1889 VAM 23A, along with the PCGS MS-62 DMPL 1882-O/S VAM 4 EDS. All of that looking has resulted in more than 200 new varieties identified by Leroy Van Allen. Along with Dennis Halladay and Tim Cannard, he produces VAMview, the quarterly emagazine. He produces, with a lot of help and partnership, especially Dennis Halladay and Ash Harrison, the twice-yearly VAMview Retail Price Guide.
Along with being a lawyer, Logan McKechnie serves as a Judge Pro Tem on the Superior Court, teaches criminal law and evidence at the local college, is the Athletic Commissioner of the Central California Community Colleges and is starting his second three-year term on the State Commission on Athletics Board, which oversees all sports at California's 108 Community Colleges.
"VAMs and More" was established in 2001 and is based in Merced, CA. We use the VAMview Retail Price Guide to set the price of coins on this site. It is believed that all items offered by "VAMs and More" are priced at what would be paid for the coin no matter where it was found.
Logan can be reached through the Contact Us page, located under the Help section, or (209) 722-9911.
