1882-CC VAM-3A2

Description

Renumbered from the repolished stage of VAM-3 in September 2025, VAM-3A2 documents a post-clash polished state of the 1882 Carson City Morgan Dollar, classified III2 3 - C3c under catalog number 177. The obverse shows polished dies where two short diagonal lines from die clashes remain visible at Liberty's neck, but the previously visible clashed letter "n" has been polished away — recording the mint's deliberate intervention to remove clash marks through die resurfacing. The reverse designation C3c identifies the companion reverse die. Carson City struck 1,133,000 Morgan Dollars in 1882, one of the smaller mintages in the series and highly prized by collectors of the CC mintmark. The renumbering from a repolished sub-stage of VAM-3 to the standalone VAM-3A2 designation reflects the VAM catalog's ongoing refinement, recognizing that post-clash polished die states can warrant independent classification when the polishing significantly alters the die's diagnostic characteristics. The doubled date and ear attributes inherited from the parent VAM-3 die linkage, combined with the distinctive polished-over clash marks, create a variety with both doubling and die maintenance forensic evidence. The two residual diagonal clash lines at Liberty's neck survived the polishing because their depth exceeded the amount of die material removed during resurfacing.

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