1896-S VAM-6

Description

Martin Field's April 1980 discovery, VAM-6 documents a Doubled 1 combined with an S/S Center repunched mintmark on the 1896 San Francisco Morgan Dollar, classified III2 5 - C3d (188). The obverse shows the digit 1 in the date doubled slightly below its upper crossbar — a subtle displacement resulting from the date punch being applied with minor vertical misalignment on the working die. The reverse carries the more visually dramatic feature: an S mintmark repunched with the original showing as a curved arc at the top of the upper loop opening, creating the centered S/S overlay characteristic of repunched mintmarks where the first punch impression was not perfectly aligned before the correction strike. San Francisco produced 5,000,000 Morgan Dollars in 1896, a modest output that places this date among the lower-mintage S-mint issues of the late 1890s. The C3d reverse designation ties the mintmark repunching to the specific reverse die classification, and the DPIS code remains unassigned. The combination of a doubled date digit and repunched mintmark documents two separate hand-punching errors on the same die pair — the date was punched on the obverse working die while the mintmark was applied to the reverse working die, meaning two different engravers or two different punching sessions each produced misalignment. Field's four-decade-old attribution remains the standard reference for this variety.

External References