1899-O VAM-28

Description

Discovered by Leroy Van Allen in July 1983, the 1899-O VAM-28 Doubled 1-9, High O documents doubling on two date digits paired with a high O mintmark on the reverse. Classified as III2 16 - C3e (Doubled 1-9, High O) under catalog number 181, the obverse shows the 1 doubled below the upper crossbar and the second 9 doubled slightly at the very top, with the date set on the left side of the normal position. The Die Pair Identification Sequence (DPIS) is LE3/RE4, providing a standardized system for matching obverse and reverse dies. The reverse O mintmark is set noticeably high — a positional variant that resulted from the hand-placement of mintmark punches into working dies before they were shipped from Philadelphia to the New Orleans branch mint. The 1899-O Morgan Dollar was struck at the New Orleans Mint during the Gilded Age, with the mint producing silver dollars under the political mandates that sustained Morgan Dollar coinage despite limited commercial demand. Twenty-eight documented VAMs for the 1899-O date reflects the thorough die variety research that New Orleans Morgan Dollars have received, with mintmark positioning being one of the most productive categories for discovering new varieties on O-mint coins. The combination of date doubling and mintmark displacement makes VAM-28 identifiable through diagnostics on both the obverse and reverse.

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