1884-O VAM-4B

Description

The 1884-O VAM-4B, discovered by C. Logan McKechnie in September 2004, is a Morgan dollar variety struck at the New Orleans Mint featuring Doubled 18 and Overlapping Reeding at the 1 and 5 O'clock positions. Classified as III2 19 C3a (181), this variety is noteworthy for exhibiting an edge anomaly in addition to obverse die characteristics, making it one of the relatively few VAM varieties where the edge of the coin serves as a primary diagnostic. The New Orleans Mint produced 9,730,000 Morgan dollars in 1884, each composed of 90% silver and 10% copper, weighing 26.73 grams with a diameter of 38.1 mm. The doubled 18 in the date indicates that these digits received a secondary impression during hub preparation, leaving traces of the original positioning visible alongside the final date placement. The edge characteristic is particularly distinctive: the reeding overlaps for approximately 8 segments at the 1 o'clock position and shows doubling at the 5 o'clock position. This differs from the parent variety VAM-4, which shows doubled reeding at 7 o'clock rather than 5 o'clock, despite sharing the same obverse die. Overlapping reeding occurs during the striking process when the collar die that forms the edge is not perfectly aligned or when the planchet shifts slightly within the collar during the strike. The fact that VAM-4B shares an obverse die with VAM-4 but shows different edge characteristics demonstrates that the edge anomaly is related to the collar or striking setup rather than the obverse or reverse dies themselves. Attribution of this variety requires examining the coin's edge, which adds an additional dimension to the standard obverse and reverse examination that most VAM collectors employ.

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