1902-P VAM-1

Description

Serving as the baseline die marriage for the 1902 Philadelphia Morgan dollar, VAM-1 documents a normal die pairing without dramatic variety characteristics — yet its catalog entry establishes the reference standard against which all other 1902-P VAMs are measured. The classification reads 1 III2 1 - C4a (Normal Die), with Obverse III2 1 describing a normal die of the Type III2 portrait style featuring a closed 9 in the date, and Reverse C4a identifying a normal die within the C4 reverse family. George T. Morgan's design entered its twenty-fifth year of production in 1902, and the Philadelphia facility struck approximately 7.99 million silver dollars that year — a modest output compared to peak-production years like 1921, but sufficient to generate multiple working die pairs that researchers have subsequently classified. The closed 9 notation on the obverse refers to the style of the numeral punch used for the date: a closed 9 has a fully connected upper loop, distinguishing it from open-9 variants where the loop does not completely close. This distinction in numeral punch style provides a primary sorting criterion for separating obverse dies before examining other diagnostics. Emission sequence data for both the obverse and reverse dies remains undocumented, meaning researchers have not yet established the chronological order in which this die pair was used relative to other 1902-P die marriages. The C4a reverse classification situates this die within the fourth major reverse type used for Morgan dollars, a grouping that encompasses most late-date issues from the 1890s through 1904. Collectors encountering a 1902-P Morgan dollar with no unusual die characteristics — no mintmark displacement, no die cracks, no repunching, and a closed 9 in the date — can tentatively attribute it as VAM-1, though confirmation requires excluding all documented sub-varieties through systematic comparison of known diagnostics.

External References