1923-P VAM-1AF

Description

David Close's discovery of VAM-1AF identified heavy die file lines above the eagle's left wing and above the right shoulder on the reverse of this 1923-P Peace Dollar — physical traces of Mint efforts to remove die clash marks from a working die. Classified as 1AF II 1 B2a (Die File Lines Upper Reverse) with importance I-2 and rarity R-5, this variety preserves a specific episode of die maintenance at the Philadelphia Mint during one of the Peace Dollar series' highest-production years. When obverse design elements — portions of Liberty's portrait — clashed into the reverse die during a planchet feed failure, they left raised marks that would transfer as incuse impressions on subsequently struck coins. To correct this, Mint workers filed the die surface in the affected areas, removing the offending clash marks but leaving behind parallel striations from the filing tool that became a permanent feature of the die's surface. On VAM-1AF, these filing marks are concentrated above the eagle's left wing and right shoulder — areas where the high relief of Liberty's portrait on the facing obverse die would have produced the most prominent clash impressions. The 1923-P Peace Dollar had one of the largest mintages in the series, with over 30 million coins struck, but individual die varieties like VAM-1AF remain relatively scarce because each variety is limited to coins struck from one specific die pair. The R-5 rarity rating of 31 to 75 known specimens reflects this limitation. The B2a reverse die designation confirms the complete die marriage, and the concentration of file lines in specific areas rather than across the entire die surface indicates targeted rather than wholesale die repair.

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