1922-D VAM-1U1

Description

Discovered by David Close and revised in 2012, VAM-1U1 on the 1922 Denver Peace Dollar documents a dramatic die break at the letter Y in LIBERTY, cataloged under die pair II 1 with a B2a reverse. The die crack enters at the rim on the left side of Y, traverses through the top of the letter, exits on the right side, and runs radially back to the rim, creating a displaced field break — an area where the die surface has shifted, producing raised and depressed zones on the struck coin. Additional diagnostics include very slight doubling of Liberty's nostril, upper lip, and the designer's initials. Those initials — the monogram "af" — belong to Antonio de Francisci, who designed the Peace Dollar in 1921 to commemorate the end of World War I. The 1922 Denver issue represents the first year of Peace Dollar production at the Denver Mint, and its enormous mintage of over 15 million pieces generated extensive die usage. Die breaks of this severity, where cracking progresses from the rim through a letter and back to the rim with field displacement, indicate a die approaching the end of its service life, retained long enough for structural failure to become visually dramatic.

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