1879-S VAM-7

Description

San Francisco produced 9.11 million Morgan dollars in 1879, the second year of George T. Morgan's classic design that would define American silver dollar coinage for over four decades. VAM-7 documents a distinct die marriage from this early San Francisco production, carrying a single-digit VAM number that indicates it was among the first varieties cataloged for the date during the foundational period of the Van Allen-Mallis attribution system. Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis published their comprehensive reference work in the 1970s, establishing the die variety classification framework that has since expanded to catalog thousands of individual die marriages across the full Morgan dollar series from 1878 through 1921. The 1879-S is notable in the Morgan dollar series for featuring multiple reverse die designs — the 1879-S comes with both the "Reverse of 1878" (flat eagle breast, parallel arrow feathers) and the "Reverse of 1879" (rounded eagle breast, slanted arrow feathers), and VAM numbers help attributors identify which reverse type accompanies each die marriage. George T. Morgan engraved the Liberty Head obverse based on sittings with Philadelphia model Anna Willess Williams, while the reverse heraldic eagle reflected American coinage tradition dating back to the earliest federal issues. The S mintmark on the reverse identifies San Francisco production, and its position and characteristics provide additional attribution data. Collectors of early-date Morgan dollars find the 1879-S particularly rewarding for die variety research due to the reverse type variation that adds an extra dimension to the VAM attribution process.

External References