Re: 1904 O Silver Dollar

lhnumis1 · Post by **lhnumis1** » Mon Jun 29, 2020 1:04 pm

The 1904 O Silver Dollar illustrated below appears to be a C4a reverse. It exhibits the following characteristics:
The date appears slanted (4 above 1) and set at a normal 2.5.
The profile is doubled from the tiara to the neck-jaw junction.
The lower hair appears surface doubled from the designer’s initial to the hair above star 4 on the right.
The mintmark appears upright, set high and a bit right; There appears to be a tiny spike emerging from the outside lower left, in the ccw direction.
Four tiny spikes emerge from the eagle’s left leg feathers and two weak spikes emerge from the right leg feathers.
The ‘W’ in ‘We’ exhibits heavy polishing lines; the inside upper loop of the ‘e’ is filled with extra metal.
I do not seem able to match this coin with other C4a coins. The closest seems the VAM3, whose description mentions the spikes. The balance of the reverse illustrations for VAM3 , appear to match my coin including the heavy die polishing but the obverse shows 3 doubled numerals (19-4). My coin does not exhibit doubling of any numerals. I appear to have a coin with the correct reverse and wrong obverse for VAM3.
I trust someone may be able to point the way. All comments, opinions, etc., always welcome.

LateDateMorganGuy · Post by **LateDateMorganGuy** » Mon Jun 29, 2020 1:36 pm

How about a shot of the denticles between S of PLURIBUS and the 1st U of UNUM, plus the inside of the ear.

lhnumis1 · Post by **lhnumis1** » Mon Jun 29, 2020 4:41 pm

Please find the images below. It seems that the denticles have two side by side die gouges. The ear may have evidence of doubling at the right. Trust this is what you may be looking for to attribute the coin.

LateDateMorganGuy · Post by **LateDateMorganGuy** » Mon Jun 29, 2020 4:48 pm

You have a VAM-3. The reverse of the VAM-3 was not married to any other obverse die, so I suspected you had a VAM-3. The gouges in the denticles nail it. Your date got mushed somehow by PMD so you can't see the date doubling.

lhnumis1 · Post by **lhnumis1** » Mon Jun 29, 2020 7:42 pm

Many thanks LateDateMorganGuy…I appreciate your help in nailing this one. Find some additional images that I took after the fact.
In the first image, the first arrow shows a tiny remnant of the doubling at the junction of the upper crossbar and the left side of the upright. The second arrow shows a tiny blob or die chip at the junction of the top of the lower crossbar with the right side of the upright…Incidentally, this blob is just visible in the first image on the VAM3 webpage as a tiny white dot. The third arrow shows the remnant of doubling at the bottom right of the ‘9’. The second image is of the ‘4’; even this magnification does not show evidence of doubling or of PMD (I take this to mean Post Minting Damage), nor does there appear to be damage at any of the other numerals.
Although the coin may be in the neighborhood of +-MS62-63, is it possible that the date area has been subject to some local die erosion? If so, might this also help to account for the lack of the doubling?
Many thanks once again for sharing your vast knowledge of the series-those die gouges are wonder!

lhnumis1

LateDateMorganGuy · Post by **LateDateMorganGuy** » Mon Jun 29, 2020 8:11 pm

The gouges in the denticles are too strong for this to be a LDS where somehow the date doubling disappeared, or close to it. The gouges actually do get weak with die wear. It still looks to me like your coins date digits got smashed.

lhnumis1 · Post by **lhnumis1** » Tue Jun 30, 2020 1:27 am

Thanks for making it possible to attribute the coin. The double die gouges will allow others to get the right answer...thanks again LDMG!