1884-P VAM-9.1

Description

Leroy Van Allen attributed no fewer than two die pairs as 1884-P VAM-9, leading to the sub-designation system that produced VAM-9.1 and VAM-9.2 as distinct die pairings sharing the same obverse characteristic: a date positioned very far to the right of normal placement. Classified as III2 9 - C3a (Very Far Date), this VAM-9.1 documents one specific die pair where the date punch was driven substantially rightward from the intended position during die preparation. In the era of hand-punched dates, each working die received its date digits individually from a punch, and the positioning varied from die to die — creating the positional variants that VAM researchers catalog as near dates, far dates, and micro-variants in between. The 1884-P Morgan Dollar was struck at the Philadelphia Mint with a production run of 14,070,875 pieces, one of the larger Philadelphia mintages of the 1880s. The Gilded Age silver dollar coinage was driven by political legislation rather than commercial need, and many 1884-P dollars went directly into Treasury vaults. The sub-numbering convention (VAM-9, VAM-9.1, VAM-9.2) allows the catalog to accommodate multiple die pairs sharing the same diagnostic feature while recognizing each as a distinct variety.

External References