1890-CC VAM-9

Description

Carson City Mint Morgan Dollars carry an aura of Western frontier heritage that makes every CC-mint variety especially prized, and this VAM-9 for the 1890-CC issue was among the earliest discoveries in VAM research — identified by Janis Curiskis in September 1977, years before the catalog reached its modern scope. Classified as VAM-9 III2 5 C3a with emission sequence number 177 and designated "Near Date," the defining obverse characteristic is a date set further left than normal, positioning the numerals closer to the rim. Multiple die chips on the digits 8 and 9 provide attribution markers: chips appear on the lower inside of the upper loop and the upper inside of the lower loop of the 8, plus the right inside of the lower loop of the 9. These small die chips — fragments of die steel that broke away from the fine curves of the numerals — create distinctive fill patterns visible under magnification. Janis Curiskis was a pioneering researcher whose early work in the late 1970s helped establish the systematic framework for Morgan Dollar variety attribution. The Carson City Mint operated from 1870 to 1893, and its limited production runs make every CC-mint variety inherently scarcer. =1890-CC VAM-9 Near Date= Discovered by Janis Curiskis, September 1977.

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