1880-S VAM-3

Description

One of the earliest documented VAM varieties for the 1880-S Morgan Dollar, VAM-3 was discovered by Charles Wallace in February 1959 — predating the formal VAM reference system itself, which was not published until 1965. The designation "S Tilted Left" under catalog code III2 1 - C3c describes a die marriage where the obverse is a normal type III2 die and the reverse carries a distinctive tilted S mintmark. The reverse C3c classification identifies a normal die of the C3 type distinguished by a very large centered mint mark that is tilted to the left — a hand-punching characteristic where the engraver applied the S punch at a slight counterclockwise angle, leaving the top of the S leaning leftward. Mintmark tilt is one of the most fundamental VAM diagnostics for San Francisco Morgan Dollars because each die's S was individually hand-punched, and the angle of application varied from die to die. The 1880-S Morgan Dollar is one of the most plentiful dates in the entire series, with a combined mintage exceeding 8.9 million pieces and massive quantities surviving in original mint-sealed bags that were dispersed from Treasury Department vaults during the great silver dollar releases of the 1960s and 1970s. The abundance of available 1880-S dollars made this date one of the most thoroughly examined in VAM research, and Charles Wallace's 1959 discovery established one of the earliest cataloged die marriages. The emission sequence for both obverse and reverse remains undocumented in the current catalog entry, suggesting that detailed die state progression analysis has not been formally recorded for this marriage despite its longstanding recognition in the VAM reference system.

External References