1880-S VAM-37B

Description

Classified as 37B III2 25 - C3ao (187), this 1880 San Francisco Morgan Dollar features doubled 80 in the date along with damaged denticles, discovered by Richard Thompson in February 2008. The obverse die (III2 25) shows the second 8 doubled faintly at the left bottom outside of the upper loop, and the 0 doubled faintly at left and right outside. Four damaged denticle spaces below 18 display inverted raised triangles with two diagonal polishing lines in the middle — an unusual form of die damage that distinguishes this variety from others sharing similar date doubling. The reverse die is designated C3ao. Importantly, this VAM is not related to VAM-37 or VAM-37A despite sharing a base number; the exact same reverse die also produced 1880-S VAM-106, VAM-129, and likely VAM-41, establishing a die lineage across four or more die marriages. This shared-reverse relationship helps researchers reconstruct the sequence in which dies were paired and retired at the San Francisco Mint. The 1880-S is one of the most common Morgan Dollar dates in high grade, making it a popular series for VAM collectors building comprehensive die variety sets.

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