1881-S VAM-14

Description

Richard Deters discovered this San Francisco Mint Morgan Dollar variety in February 1973, identifying a repunched mintmark that distinguishes it from normal 1881-S die pairs. Cataloged as VAM-14 with classification III2 1 - C3g (S/S Far Left), the obverse uses normal Type III2 dies, while the reverse shows a mintmark that was repunched with the original S visible as a short spike at the far left inside of the upper loop opening. Repunched mintmarks on Morgan Dollars occurred because the small letter punches were applied individually to each working die by hand at the branch mints, and if the first impression was judged unsatisfactory — whether off-center, tilted, or too shallow — the engraver would strike the punch again at a corrected position, leaving traces of the original impression. The far-left positioning of the remnant spike indicates the first S was placed noticeably to the left of the final intended position. The 1881-S Morgan Dollar is one of the more common dates in the series, with a mintage of approximately 12.76 million coins, many of which survived in Mint State due to extensive Treasury storage. Despite its commonality as a date, the VAM-14 repunched mintmark adds numismatic interest through its documentation of the hand-punching process that was fundamental to 19th-century branch mint die preparation.

External References