1923-D VAM-1AI

Description

Discovered by Eric Justice in January 2005, this Denver Mint Peace Dollar features a full cud — not merely retained — at the rim opposite the rear hair strands on Liberty's portrait. Cataloged as VAM-1AI with die pair classification II 1 - B2a, the obverse tells a story of progressive die failure: a die crack runs upward through TR in TRVST to the rim below Y in LIBERTY, culminating in a large cud where displaced metal fills the fracture zone behind the hair strands. The use of TRVST rather than TRUST reflects the Peace Dollar's distinctive Latin-inspired lettering, where V substitutes for U. Cuds of this size on Peace Dollars are noteworthy because the design's high relief concentrates striking pressure at rim transition points. Rated I-4 for importance and R-6 for rarity, with an estimated 75 to 150 known examples. The high alphanumeric suffix "AI" in the VAM-1 family illustrates how extensively researchers have documented die state progressions within a single base variety for the 1923-D date. Denver Mint production.

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