1898-O VAM-6

Description

Identified by Edwin Miller in January 1970, the 1898-O VAM-6 "Near Date" Morgan dollar documents an obverse die with the date numerals positioned further left than their standard placement on George T. Morgan's silver dollar design. Cataloged as 6 III2 4 - C3a (Near Date) with catalog number 181 and Obverse III2 4 classification, this variety stands as a counterpart to far-date varieties, together illustrating the range of lateral date positioning that resulted from the hand-punching methods employed at nineteenth-century branch mints. New Orleans produced approximately 4.44 million Morgan dollars in 1898, a moderate mintage that supported active commerce in the Mississippi River corridor. Edwin Miller's January 1970 discovery places this attribution among the foundational VAM identifications established during the late 1960s and early 1970s, when systematic die variety study of Morgan dollars was transitioning from isolated collector observations into the structured catalog that would become the VAM reference system. The "near" designation indicates the date sits closer to the center of the coin — further left beneath Liberty's bust truncation — than the typical positioning observed across the population of 1898-O working dies. Date position varieties arise because each working die received its date through manual punching: an engraver positioned a logotype or individual digit punches against the die face and struck them with a mallet, and even skilled craftsmen produced natural variations in lateral and vertical placement from die to die. The Reverse C3a classification pairs this distinctive obverse with a standard reverse die type. Emission sequence documentation and DPIS entries remain unlisted for this variety, and collectors can identify the near date by comparing the leftward shift of the 1898 digits against reference images of normally positioned examples from the same date-mint combination.

External References