1926-S VAM-1I2

Description

Part of the VAM-1 die family for the 1926-S Peace Dollar, the revised classification VAM-1I2 documents a double clash event that produced spikes on the eagle's shoulder, combined with die chips at the base of the last tiara ray. The designation 1I2 (revised) II1 - B2a carries an importance rating of I-2 and a rarity rating of R-5, indicating moderate importance and scarcity with an estimated 75 to 200 surviving examples. The obverse die II1 shows three or four small die chips at the base of the last ray in Liberty's tiara, along with lines through the E — evidence that the die had accumulated both clash damage and surface deterioration. A double clash event occurs when the dies contact each other without a planchet on two separate occasions, with each clash potentially occurring at a slightly different alignment and leaving its own set of transferred design elements. The resulting spikes on the eagle's shoulder represent transferred obverse design detail impressed into the reverse die during the clash events. The "(revised)" notation indicates that this variety's classification was updated from an earlier designation as researchers refined the VAM-1 sub-variety catalog. The 1926-S Peace Dollar had a mintage of 6,980,000 at San Francisco, one of the lower-mintage dates in the series. Die chips at the tiara ray tips are a relatively common form of die deterioration on Peace Dollars, as the pointed ray terminations create stress concentrations in the die face, but the combination with double-clash spikes makes this a multi-feature variety with both clash and deterioration diagnostics. The R-5 rarity suggests limited production from this specific die state, either because the die was retired shortly after the clash events or because the damage occurred late in the die's production life.

External References