1888-S VAM-5

Description

Originally discovered by Martin Field in December 1978 and revised in July 2025, the 1888-S VAM-5 Morgan Dollar features a slanted date with the numerals positioned at the left side of the normal lateral placement and angled upward. The VAM classification III2 3 - C3i (Slanted Date) (186) documents this as a date positioning variety, where the date was punched into the obverse die at a noticeable tilt rather than the intended horizontal alignment. During this era, each digit of the date was individually punched into the working die by an engraver, and the accumulated minor variations in angle across the four digits could produce a visibly slanted date line. The DPIS (Die Pair Identification System) notation LH3/RH4 provides hub pairing data, and the emission sequence lists this reverse as shared between VAM-5 and VAM-4, indicating the same reverse die was used in at least two different die marriages. The San Francisco Mint struck 657,000 Morgan Dollars in 1888, one of the lower mintages in the Morgan Dollar series, making 1888-S coins scarcer than many other dates in the series. The low mintage means fewer die pairs were used, yet the slanted date variety demonstrates that even limited production runs could generate distinctive positioning variants. Martin Field's 1978 discovery and the 2025 revision illustrate the longevity of VAM research — nearly five decades of continuous refinement of die variety attributions.

External References