1896-O VAM-13

Description

Discovered by Leroy Van Allen in December 1979 and classified as VAM-13 with the designation III2 10 - C3f (Near Date, High O), this 1896-O Morgan Dollar variety documents two distinct die characteristics: an obverse with the date set further left than normal (Near Date), and a reverse bearing a medium O mint mark positioned slightly high. The classifier notation "(181)" following the die pair description provides the emission sequence reference within the Van Allen-Mallis system. The III2 obverse class and C3f reverse class place this variety within the standardized Morgan Dollar attribution framework that Van Allen and A. George Mallis established in their landmark reference work, which has been the foundation of Morgan Dollar die variety collecting since its initial publication. The Near Date positioning indicates that when the date logits were punched into the obverse die, they were placed further to the left than the standard die layout — a variation that occurred because date punching was performed manually during this era, with each working die receiving its date digits individually. The High O reverse refers to the mint mark being positioned above the standard location between the D and O of DOLLAR on the reverse — another artifact of manual mint mark application at the New Orleans Mint. A noted scratch in front of the eye provides an additional attribution marker on the obverse. The 1896-O Morgan Dollar was struck at the New Orleans Mint with a mintage of just over 4.9 million coins, and the date is known for its scarcity in higher grades. VAM collecting for the 1896-O has documented at least thirteen die variety pairs, with Van Allen himself contributing many of the foundational discoveries that built the Morgan Dollar variety specialty into one of the most active areas of American numismatics.

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