1882-P VAM-6

Description

Discovered by George Mallis in June 1966 — one of the co-creators of the VAM classification system itself — the 1882-P VAM-6 exhibits doubling on the 18 in the date, with the digit 1 doubled at the top right of the stem and the upper loop of the first 8 doubled on the left side. Classified as III2 6 - C3a (Doubled 18) with a rarity rating of I-2 R-4, this variety uses an open 2 date style. The R-4 rarity designation in the Van Allen-Mallis scale indicates a scarce variety with an estimated surviving population between 200 and 2,000 specimens. However, the catalogers appended an extraordinary note: "COIN MAY NOT EXIST" — a caveat suggesting that while the die characteristics have been documented, confirmed struck examples may remain unverified or the original attribution specimen may have been lost or reclassified. Such notations are unusual in the VAM catalog and highlight the scholarly challenges of maintaining a comprehensive die variety reference across more than a century of Morgan Dollar production. Date doubling on Morgan Dollars resulted from the hand-punching of date logotypes into working dies, where misalignment between punching impressions left overlapping numerals. The 1882 Philadelphia Mint Morgan Dollar was part of a robust 11.1 million piece mintage produced under the Bland-Allison Act. George Mallis's personal discovery of this variety underscores the intimate connection between the VAM cataloging system's founders and the varieties they documented.

External References