1921-P VAM-1AH2

Description

Tracing its origin to the mechanical planchet feeding system rather than die manufacture, this 1921 Philadelphia Morgan Dollar variety displays two small short die gouges at the denticles above the left T in STATES on the reverse. These gouges were created by feed fingers — the mechanical devices that position blank planchets between the dies before each strike. When feed fingers contact the die surface instead of or in addition to the planchet, they can scratch or gouge the die, and those marks then transfer to every subsequent coin struck. The designation VAM-1AH2 places this variety deep within the VAM-1 sub-family, where the complex alphanumeric suffix tracks numerous states and sub-types documented across the enormous 1921-P production run. Classified as obverse IV with a D1a reverse, this variety belongs to the redesigned 1921 hub type created when Morgan Dollar production resumed after the 1904-1920 gap. Discovered in 2013, the feed finger origin makes this variety mechanically distinct from hub doubling, die clashing, or die deterioration — it records an interaction between the coining press machinery and the die surface rather than a flaw in the die itself.

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