1885-O VAM-20

Description

Discovered by George Powell in January 2004, this VAM-20 variety of the 1885 New Orleans Mint Morgan Dollar features a doubled ear at right — with slight doubling visible at the right inside, right outside, and bottom outside of Liberty's ear. Classified as obverse die III215 with a C3a reverse, the ear doubling indicates the working hub shifted slightly between impressions during die preparation, creating a shadow image of this detailed facial feature. The catalog notes that this obverse die is shared with 1885-O VAM-24, demonstrating die muling — a practice where the same obverse die was paired with different reverse dies during the production run, creating distinct VAM varieties from a single obverse. The 1885-O Morgan Dollar is one of the more plentiful New Orleans issues, with a mintage of 9.185 million pieces, and many survivors come from Treasury hoards released in the 1960s. The New Orleans Mint operated from 1838 to 1909, producing coins prized today for their historical Southern provenance. George Powell's discovery of this variety over two decades after the original Van Allen-Mallis catalog was published illustrates the ongoing nature of VAM research, where dedicated specialists continue to find new die pairings and varieties among the millions of surviving Morgan Dollars.

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