1923-S VAM-1AN

Description

Reported in September 2006 by C. Logan McKechnie, the 1923-S VAM-1AN "Shortened Front Ray" Peace dollar documents an obverse die polishing anomaly on Anthony de Francisci's design that removed a portion of Liberty's crown detail. Cataloged as 1AN II 1 · B2a (Shortened Front Ray) with die classification I-2 and rarity rating R-5 (approximately 30-75 known), this variety reveals the effects of aggressive die maintenance during San Francisco's silver dollar production. The obverse die shows the front of Liberty's hair was over-polished with a beveled field, and this polishing removed enough surface metal to shorten the first front ray of the crown away from the hair — effectively erasing design detail that should extend from the tiara into the adjacent field. San Francisco produced approximately 19.02 million Peace dollars in 1923, requiring extensive die maintenance to sustain production quality across long press runs. Die polishing was a routine procedure used to remove die cracks, rust pitting, and clash marks from working dies, extending their usable life, but overly aggressive polishing sometimes abraded fine design elements beyond recovery. The beveled field adjacent to the polished area provides an additional diagnostic, as the smoothly contoured transition zone contrasts with the normal flat field texture found on unpolished dies. At R-5, this variety appears infrequently in the marketplace. Collectors should examine the area where Liberty's foremost hair strand meets the first radial ray of the crown under 15-20x magnification, comparing the truncated ray length against reference images of the normal VAM-1 configuration to confirm the polishing-induced shortening.

External References