1898-P VAM-8

Description

Attributed to Leroy Van Allen from a June 1981 discovery, the 1898-P VAM-8 "Doubled 1" Morgan dollar documents a doubled numeral 1 in the date where the digit shows doubling below the upper crossbar on George T. Morgan's silver dollar obverse. Cataloged as 8 III2 8 · C3a (Doubled 1) with die number 190, this variety pairs Obverse III2 8 — characterized by the doubled 1 diagnostic — with a standard Reverse C3a. An important supplementary observation accompanies the catalog entry: this VAM has an unlisted slanted date, meaning the baseline date position is angled from its expected horizontal alignment, adding a second diagnostic characteristic not yet formally incorporated into the VAM classification. Philadelphia struck approximately 5.88 million Morgan dollars in 1898, a moderate mintage that placed demands on the die shop sufficient to generate multiple identifiable die pairs. The doubled 1 below the upper crossbar indicates the date numeral received two impressions during die preparation, with the secondary impression displaced slightly downward, creating a visible doubling effect that is most apparent at the junction where the vertical stroke meets the horizontal serif. Leroy Van Allen — co-creator of the VAM classification system alongside George Mallis — personally discovered this variety during the systematic expansion of the 1898-P catalog in the early 1980s. The unlisted slanted date observation suggests that the entire date row tilts at a slight angle, which could result from the master die preparation or from the working die's date being part of a hub impression that carried a positional anomaly. Collectors should examine the numeral 1 under 15x magnification, focusing on the area immediately below the top crossbar where the secondary impression creates a doubled horizontal element.

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