1896-O VAM-11

Description

Discovered by Ivan Leaman in March 1974, the 1896-O VAM-11 Morgan Dollar is cataloged as "Doubled 18" under the Van Allen-Mallis system, classified as III2 7 with a C3a reverse and catalog number 181. The defining obverse characteristic involves doubling on the first two digits of the date: the numeral 1 shows strong doubling at its bottom, while the 8 displays slight doubling at the bottom left outside, indicating that the date logotype was impressed twice with a minor positional shift between impacts. A secondary note records that the O mintmark is set slightly left of the standard position, adding a mintmark placement variety to the doubled date diagnostic. Ivan Leaman's discovery in 1974 came during the formative years of VAM research, when collectors were systematically examining New Orleans Mint Morgan Dollars and documenting the positional variations that hand-punched dates and mintmarks produced. The 1896-O Morgan Dollar had a mintage of approximately 4.9 million pieces, a relatively moderate output for the New Orleans facility, and the lower production volume compared to Philadelphia potentially means fewer die pairs were used, concentrating varieties among fewer dies. New Orleans Mint Morgan Dollars are generally valued for their distinctive strike character and the facility's historical association with Southern commerce and the cotton trade. The combination of a doubled date with a slightly off-position mintmark provides two independent attribution diagnostics for VAM-11, making it identifiable through either characteristic and doubly confirmable when both are present on a single specimen.

External References