1878-S VAM-1

Description

Howard Newcomb first documented this San Francisco Morgan dollar in February 1913, making it one of the earliest identified VAM die marriages. Classified 1 II1 with a B2a reverse under the designation Normal Die, the obverse II1 die shows a broken point on the fourth right star and slight doubling on the right side of the 7, the latter being a hub defect present on all dies from the same hub. The reverse carries a small type III S mintmark. Since 1878 dates were part of the master die, no date position variation exists. Some specimens exhibit diagonal polishing marks in the eagle's tail feathers and through the first top berry in the left wreath, or horizontal polishing lines through the neck and eagle's right wing, indicating die maintenance. Research notes suggest this variety may not exist as a distinct die marriage, a cautionary note reflecting the difficulty of confirming century-old attributions when few verifiable specimens surface. The 1878-S Morgan dollar was the San Francisco Mint's inaugural issue in the series, and VAM-1 represents the baseline normal die pairing against which all other 1878-S varieties are measured. =1878-S VAM-1 Normal Die= Discovered by Howard Newcomb, February 1913.

External References