1896-P VAM-1E

Description

Reported in 2010, the 1896-P VAM-1E Morgan Dollar is assigned die marriage III21, reverse C3a, and features a clashed obverse die. A faint tick representing a partial letter n from the word IN on the reverse was transferred onto the obverse next to Liberty's neck during a die clash — an event where the obverse and reverse dies strike each other without a planchet between them. The slightly rotated reverse in the clockwise direction caused lowered clash marks along the neck edge, shifting the transferred impression to a position slightly different from what a perfectly aligned clash would produce. A horizontal polishing line in front of the lower part of the eye on the obverse serves as a die marker for confirming attribution. The Philadelphia Mint struck the 1896-P Morgan Dollar during the latter years of the series' original run, a period when political debate over silver coinage and the bimetallic standard dominated national politics. Clashed die varieties on Morgan Dollars are pursued by a dedicated subset of VAM collectors who specialize in identifying transferred design elements.

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