1892-CC VAM-6

Description

Bearing witness to the final year of Morgan dollar coinage at the Carson City Mint, the 1892-CC VAM-6 "Dropped C" — discovered by Leonard Hinckley in February 1974 — documents a mintmark positioning anomaly on the reverse of George T. Morgan's silver dollar design. Cataloged as 6 III2 1 · C3e (Dropped C), the reverse description specifies that the right C of the CC mint mark is set lower than the left C — a placement discrepancy resulting from the hand-punching process used to individually apply each mintmark letter to working dies at the Carson City Mint. Carson City struck approximately 1.35 million Morgan dollars in 1892, the final year of Morgan dollar production at this legendary Nevada facility, making every 1892-CC die variety a piece of Carson City's closing chapter. The "Dropped C" terminology describes a vertical misalignment where one of the two C letters in the CC mintmark sits below the baseline established by its companion, creating an uneven pairing visible under moderate magnification. Because each C was punched separately into the die by hand, the relative position of the two letters varied from die to die — some showing the C's level, others tilted, separated by varying distances, or, as in this case, vertically offset. Leonard Hinckley's 1974 discovery came during the formative years of the VAM cataloging system, when researchers were establishing the diagnostic standards that would eventually grow into the comprehensive Morgan dollar die variety reference used today. The Obverse III2 1 classification pairs with the C3e reverse, and DPIS entries with emission sequence data remain undocumented. Collectors should examine the CC mintmark on the reverse with attention to the relative vertical positioning of the two letters, where the rightward C's lower placement creates a step-down effect visible under 10-15x magnification.

External References