1885-P VAM-2

Description

One of the earliest documented Morgan Dollar die varieties, the 1885-P VAM-2 was discovered by George Mallis in June 1965 — predating the formal establishment of the Van Allen-Madison cataloging system and representing the pioneering era of systematic Morgan Dollar variety research. Classified as III2 2 C3a (Doubled 5) with die pairing number 189, the obverse (III2 2) exhibits the 5 in the date doubled all across the top, creating a distinctive flattened or thickened upper profile on the terminal digit. Some specimens show a faint dash well below the second 8, an additional die marker that appears on a subset of strikes. The date is set on the right side of the normal position tolerance range. The diagnostic die marker is a long vertical polishing line near the Phrygian cap ribbon, though community commentary notes that this variety comes both with and without this polishing line, indicating the line may have been introduced or removed during die maintenance partway through the die's production run — specimens without the polishing line represent either an earlier die state (before the maintenance) or a later state (after additional polishing removed it). The reverse (C3a) is classified as a normal die. George T. Morgan's design was struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1885, composed of 90% silver and 10% copper, weighing 26.73 grams with a 38.1 mm diameter. The 1885-P had a mintage of approximately 17.79 million pieces. Mallis's 1965 discovery date places this among the foundational VAM attributions, and his contribution to early Morgan Dollar variety research helped establish the systematic approach to die study that Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis would formalize in their comprehensive reference work.

External References