1884-O VAM-9
Error
Description
One of the earliest documented New Orleans Morgan Dollar varieties, the 1884-O VAM-9 was discovered by Del Ford in July 1966 and features an O/O repunched mintmark — the original O visible within the right half of the opening of the final O. Cataloged as III2 1 - C3f with die variety number 181, this variety preserves evidence of the hand-punching process used to apply mintmarks to working dies in the nineteenth century, where a misaligned first impression was corrected by a second, more accurately placed punch. An important attribution note accompanies this variety: VAM-9 and VAM-11 share the same die pair, meaning both catalog numbers describe coins struck from identical obverse and reverse dies. Repunched mintmarks on Morgan Dollars are foundational collecting varieties — they were among the first die characteristics systematically cataloged in the VAM system pioneered by Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis. The 1884-O is one of the most available Morgan dates due to massive Treasury releases, making its RPM varieties accessible to collectors at every level.
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