A few days ago I began looking at some of my Morgans to determine if I can identify different die varieties. I went to VamWorld and analyzed different die varieties on there and compared them to the individual coins in my collection. In the process, I discovered that cooties are not limited to girls. Coins can carry them as well.
On the obverse of some Morgan dollars there exists what appears like a hairline twirling on the face of Liberty's bust near the junction of the cheek and neck. While not a rare VAM variety, I found it interesting. I have two 1878-S PCGS MS64 Morgans and one of them has cooties and the other one doesn't. Using my cheap 30x 21mm Jeweler's Loupe and my iPhone 5s I managed to take some photos of the cootie, also known as cottie, on the infected coin without having to pull out my Canon 60D and take macro photos of the surface.
One thing to note when inspecting coins for die varieties is that it is a tedious job and can produce a lot of eye strain. I would recommend examining a few coins at a time and then relaxing for a few minutes, or taking high resolution images of the coin. Of course sometimes one needs to examine a coin at different angles to detect slight doubling seen on certain die varieties that it is better to examine a coin under magnification then to decipher the die variety with imagery.
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