1882-S VAM-15

Description

Discovered by Maurice Dubreuil in February 1977, this San Francisco Morgan dollar is cataloged as VAM-15 under classification III2 14 with a C3a reverse, titled Doubled 882. The obverse shows multiple layers of date doubling: the first 8 is slightly doubled on its surface at the bottom right of the lower loop and the lower left inside of the upper loop, the second 8 is tripled at the top outside of the upper loop and doubled on the right outside of the lower loop, and the 2 shows doubling at its very top outside edge. The reverse is classified as a normal C3a die, though it shares a connection to the 1882-S VAM-14 reverse. The same physical reverse die was used for both VAM-14 and VAM-15, but by the time this die was paired with the VAM-15 obverse, considerable wear had reduced the eagle's leg gouges characteristic of the VAM-14 state, and a new gouge had developed on the branch near the arrowheads. This progressive die deterioration provides an additional confirmation point for distinguishing VAM-15 from VAM-14 when both date doublings are ambiguous on worn specimens.

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