1890-CC VAM-2

Description

Discovered by Charles Wallace in February 1959, the 1890-CC VAM-2 "CC Tilted Left" Morgan dollar documents a reverse die where the CC mintmark leans to the left beneath the eagle's tail feathers, with the top of the second C actually touching the wreath on George T. Morgan's silver dollar design. Cataloged as 2 III2 1 · C3b (CC Tilted Left), this variety pairs a standard Obverse III2 1 with a Reverse C3b characterized by the leftward-tilted mintmark. The Carson City Mint struck approximately 2.31 million Morgan dollars in 1890, continuing the Nevada facility's tradition of modest production volumes that have consistently elevated Carson City Morgan dollars to premium status among collectors. Charles Wallace's February 1959 discovery places this among the earliest documented VAM attributions for any Morgan dollar date, established years before Van Allen and Mallis formalized the systematic catalog that now bears their initials. Carson City mintmarks were hand-punched into each working die, and the leftward tilt on VAM-2 indicates the die sinker applied the CC punch at an angle, with the tops of both letters leaning counterclockwise from vertical. The second C's contact with the wreath provides a particularly distinctive diagnostic — this physical intersection between the mintmark and an adjacent design element creates an unambiguous attribution point that cannot be replicated by normal mintmark positioning. The C3b reverse classification distinguishes this die from the C3a normal reverse type by incorporating the tilted mintmark as a classification-level characteristic. Collectors can identify VAM-2 by examining the CC mintmark orientation under 10x magnification, looking for the leftward lean and confirming that the top of the rightmost C touches or nearly touches the wreath detail above.

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