1878-P VAM-14.2A

Description

This alternate catalog entry for the 1878-P VAM-14.2A Morgan Dollar references the same die marriage discovered in 2019 by "twohawks" and classified as I1 4 - A1I. The full variety designation — "Polished Ear, Doubled Date, Tripled Left Stars, Feed Finger Gouges OF" — describes an unusually complex combination of four distinct anomaly types on a single die pair. The polished ear on the obverse, where aggressive die maintenance removed fine detail from Liberty's ear, represents deliberate human intervention in the die's surface. The doubled date and tripled left stars originated during the mechanical hubbing process, with the date digits receiving one extra impression and the left-side stars receiving two additional impressions beyond the primary. On the reverse (A1I), vertical die gouges at the OF inscription resulted from feed finger contact — the automated planchet-feeding mechanism occasionally struck the die face between coining operations, gouging the softer die steel and leaving linear marks that transferred as raised lines on all subsequently struck coins. This damage appears on early die state (EDS) specimens, establishing it as an early-production characteristic. Because 1878 dates were incorporated into the master die, the doubled date anomaly on this variety originated at the master die level rather than from individual date punch misplacement, giving it a fundamentally different production origin than doubled dates on later issues. The Morgan Dollar was struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1878 — the series' inaugural year — in 90% silver at 26.73 grams with a 38.1 mm diameter. The coexistence of hubbing anomalies (doubling, tripling), deliberate maintenance alterations (polished ear), and production damage (feed finger gouges) on a single die pair provides a comprehensive catalog of the different forces that acted upon working dies during Morgan Dollar manufacturing at the Philadelphia Mint.

External References