1921-P VAM-1AR

Description

Classified as 1921-P VAM-1AR with the designation IV1 – D1a (Scribbling Die Scratches) and die pairing number 189, this Morgan Dollar presents a reverse (D1a) displaying fine die scratches in various directions on over-polished tail feathers around the eagle’s right leg and between the eagle’s left wing and body — the same scribbling scratch pattern documented across numerous 1921-P VAM varieties, resulting from aggressive die polishing during the high-volume production year. The reverse die marker is a vertical die scratch in the lower middle outside feathers of the eagle’s left wing, a specific location marker that distinguishes this particular reverse die from the many other 1921-P reverses exhibiting similar polishing patterns. The discoverer is not recorded in available documentation. In 1921, dates were part of the master die rather than individually punched, so there is no variation in date position — a production characteristic unique to the final year of Morgan Dollar coinage. The Morgan Dollar was designed by George T. Morgan and struck at the Philadelphia Mint in 1921 in 90% silver at 26.73 grams with a 38.1 mm diameter. The 1921-P Philadelphia Mint production was part of the massive final-year Morgan Dollar output mandated by the Pittman Act of 1918, which authorized the melting and recoinage of hundreds of millions of silver dollars. The vertical die scratch in the lower wing feathers provides the critical differentiating marker for this variety among the extensive family of 1921-P scribbling die scratch entries, each distinguished by its unique die marker location despite sharing the same general pattern of multidirectional polishing striations across the eagle’s body.

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