1878 Morgan Dollar - Reverse of 1878 - VAM-129

Description

Sharing the VAM-129 designation with its Reverse of 1879 counterpart, this 1878 Philadelphia Morgan Dollar pairs the same die scratch variety with the Reverse of 1878 — the original reverse type distinguished by its tail feather arrangement on the eagle. The catalog entry 129 II 2 B2a (180) describes the obverse as Die II Position 2, featuring a heavy diagonal die scratch through the B and bottom of I in LIBERTY. This same obverse also appears as 1878-P VAM-195, confirming its use across multiple die marriages during the inaugural Morgan Dollar year. Renumbered from VAM-131C1 during the November 2022 reorganization, the variety retains its diagnostic characteristics under the new number. Because 1878 dates were incorporated into the master die, no date position variation exists for this year. The existence of VAM-129 across both reverse types demonstrates that obverse dies were not exclusively paired with a single reverse, and the same obverse could be combined with either type during production transitions at Philadelphia in George T. Morgan's first year of dollar coinage.

External References