1901-P VAM-11

Description

Jeff Oxman's December 1993 discovery, VAM-11 originally documented Doubled Hair Above Ear on the 1901 Philadelphia Morgan Dollar, classified III2 5 with a C4/C3? reverse designation and catalog number 189. The obverse showed hair above the ear doubled as well as forehead and profile doubling with a slight spike below the eyelid — multiple zones of hub doubling across Liberty's portrait that created a compelling variety. However, VAM-11 was de-listed as a duplicate of VAM-15 in December 2011, eighteen years after its initial cataloging, when researchers determined both entries documented the same die marriage. Notably, VAM-11 was never plated in any edition of the VAM book or its updates, meaning no official reference photographs were published during its active listing period. Philadelphia struck 6,962,813 Morgan Dollars in 1901, the twenty-fourth year of series production, and the doubled hair and profile diagnostics affected design elements on George T. Morgan's Liberty head that are commonly examined for variety attribution. The de-listing preserves important archival information: it documents Oxman's original discovery, establishes the duplicate relationship with VAM-15, and prevents future researchers from independently "rediscovering" this die and creating a third catalog entry. The C4/C3? reverse designation with its question mark reflects uncertainty about the reverse die characteristics that may have contributed to the delayed recognition of the duplicate status.

External References