1925-S VAM-1C

Description

Die gouges in the rays between IB and to the left of U in UNITED distinguish VAM-1C on the 1925-S Peace Dollar, a variety discovered by Laurence Galbraith in May 2005 and subsequently revised within the VAM catalog. Cataloged as 1C (revised) II 1 B2a with an I-2 interest level and R-5 rarity, this die marriage pairs Obverse II 1 — featuring a short shallow diagonal die gouge through the fifth long ray from the front of Liberty's crown — with Reverse B2a, which carries a vertical thin die gouge to the left of the U in UNITED. San Francisco struck 1,610,000 Peace Dollars in 1925, a figure that placed the S-mint issue well below the Philadelphia production of 10,198,000 for the same year. Anthony de Francisci's high-relief Peace Dollar design, with its bold rays emanating from Liberty's crown, provides a detailed obverse field where die gouges stand out against the carefully sculpted radial elements. The R-5 rarity rating indicates a surviving population estimated between 30 and 75 known examples, placing VAM-1C among the scarcer varieties within the 1925-S date. Die gouges of this type typically result from debris trapped between the hub and die during manufacture or from post-hubbing damage inflicted during die finishing at the Mint, and their precise location in the ray field and near UNITED provides unambiguous attribution markers. Peace Dollar VAM collecting has maintained strong collector interest since Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis established the cataloging system, and scarcer varieties like VAM-1C command attention proportional to their rarity.

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