1887-S VAM-16

Description

Listed in the Van Allen-Mallis catalog as "Doubled S," the 1887-S VAM-16 Morgan Dollar exhibits slight doubling at the bottom of the S mintmark, indicating the mintmark punch was impressed into the die twice with a minor positional shift between applications. During this era, mintmarks were hand-punched into working dies, and even small inconsistencies in placement produced detectable doubling visible under magnification. The San Francisco Mint produced Morgan Dollars from 1878 through 1921, and the 1887-S is a moderately available date in the series. Numismatic research notes that VAM-16 may share the same reverse die as VAM-5, and the variety may be identical to either VAM-5 or VAM-7 — a relationship that VAM researchers continue to investigate as additional specimens are examined and die pair matches are confirmed or ruled out. These potential die linkages are important to the VAM system, which catalogs every identifiable die pair combination. Doubled mintmarks on San Francisco Morgan Dollars are a recognized category of die variety, and the systematic documentation of these repunched mintmarks has produced a rich catalog of S-mint varieties for specialists to pursue.

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