1878 Morgan Dollar - Reverse of 1879 - VAM-202A

Description

The 1878-P Morgan Dollar VAM-202A, cataloged under the Reverse of 1879, was discovered by Jeff Oxman in June 2005 and documents a die pairing rich in transfer and doubling features. The obverse exhibits lines in the wheat leaves, doubling of the date, and a clashed die showing the incuse impression of the n from the reverse motto word "In." The reverse is clashed with the impression of designer George T. Morgan's monogram M, which appears above the W in We of E PLURIBUS on the reverse field — transferred from the obverse die during a clash event. Morgan's initial, which appears as a small M on Liberty's truncation on the obverse, thus left its mark on the reverse die and subsequently on struck coins. The Reverse of 1879 die is identified by its row of seven tail feathers replacing the controversial eight-feather arrangement of the initial 1878 reverse. The 1878-P Morgan Dollar is a 90% silver coin struck at Philadelphia during the first year of the Morgan series; the presence of cross-die clash impressions connecting obverse and reverse attribution makes VAM-202A one of the more diagnostically distinctive pairings for this date.

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