1889-S VAM-11

Description

Discovered by Leroy Van Allen himself in September 1983, the 1889-S VAM-11 Morgan Dollar is classified as III2 8 · C3a (Very Far Date) with die pairing number 184. The obverse (III2 8) features the date positioned much further to the right than normal — a pronounced displacement that reflects an unusually extreme placement of the date punches during die preparation at the Philadelphia hub shop (where working dies for all mints were manufactured before being shipped to their assigned facilities). The "Very Far Date" designation distinguishes this variety from ordinary far-date varieties, indicating the rightward displacement exceeds the typical range of variation. Community notes provide additional attribution detail: the mintmark is set slightly to the left, the obverse die was also used on 1889-S VAM-6 (establishing a die lineage connection between the two varieties through the shared obverse), and obverse polishing lines are readily observed at the top of the die, indicating attempts to erase small cracks — evidence of die maintenance performed to extend the die's useful service life by grinding away early-stage surface fractures. The Morgan Dollar was designed by George T. Morgan and struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1889 in 90% silver at 26.73 grams with a 38.1 mm diameter. The 1889-S had a mintage of approximately 700,000 pieces — one of the lower San Francisco mintages in the series, which combined with the strong collector interest in the San Francisco Morgan Dollar population makes die varieties from this date-mint particularly notable. Van Allen's personal discovery of this variety during the foundational years of Morgan Dollar variety research underscores its significance within the VAM classification system.

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