1879-S VAM-29A

Description

Originally discovered in 2012, VAM-29A was eliminated from the official VAM catalog in 2017 — a determination that the variety was either a duplicate of another listing or incorrectly classified as a distinct die pair. Before elimination, the variety was attributed as III2 15 - C3y, describing a doubled 879 and right obverse with a gouge in the hair, high S mintmark, engraved leaves, and die chips at the tips of both wings. The San Francisco mintmark was described as a centered high medium S tilted left, with doubled B and U of PLURIBUS and left number 3 cluster engraved leaves. The rarity rating of R-7 placed it among the most seldom encountered Morgan Dollar varieties, with an interest level of I-5. Elimination from the VAM catalog does not erase the variety from the historical record — it documents the self-correcting nature of die variety research, where initial attributions are sometimes revised as additional specimens surface or existing listings are compared more carefully. The 1879-S Morgan Dollar was produced at San Francisco during the early years of Morgan Dollar coinage, when production was ramping up under the Bland-Allison Act mandate to coin silver.

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