1903-S VAM-7

Description

Discovered by Jim Baxter in March 1979, the 1903-S VAM-7 Morgan Dollar is designated "Slanted Date, S Tilted Left" under catalog code III2 2 - C4c. The obverse is type III2 die 2, featuring a slight slant to the date with the numeral 1 positioned closest to the rim — indicating the date was punched at a slight angle during die preparation, causing the leftmost digit to sit lower (nearer the rim) than the rightmost digit. The reverse is classified as C4c with the defining characteristic being a mint mark tilted to the left. Both the slanted date and tilted mintmark are hand-punching artifacts: the date digits and the S mintmark were individually punched into working dies by hand, and the angle of each punch varied from die to die depending on operator technique. When both the date and mintmark show angular displacement, it creates a die marriage with dual positional diagnostics that strengthen attribution confidence. The 1903-S Morgan Dollar had a mintage of approximately 1.24 million pieces from the San Francisco Mint — a relatively modest production figure that makes documented die marriages from this date of particular interest to serious VAM collectors. Jim Baxter's March 1979 discovery came during the late 1970s flowering of VAM research, when the reference work by Van Allen and Mallis was inspiring systematic examination of Morgan Dollars across all dates and mints. The San Francisco Mint's 1903 production represented one of its smaller Morgan Dollar outputs, and seven documented VAM varieties for the date demonstrates thorough collector examination relative to the available population.

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