1896 P Vam 4 or 4a?

[SilverToken]

Picked up a 1896 P Double Star Low date, no mistaking, uncirculated. Has the gouge on the cap identical to the images on the site, however it DOES NOT have the field gouges on the UN. The VAM listing says "leaf AND series of...", it's not "may", or "or".

So what do we call it? 4, 4a, or 4-half-a?

Thank you in advance

[vamsterdam]

Pictures??

[SilverToken]

Photos, still trying to dial in my photography

[SilverToken]

Couple more images

[messydesk]

The short answer is that for now I would call it VAM 4.

The long answer becomes complicated. Looking at the pictures of VAM 4A, the gouges in the field are easy to see. What I must wonder, however, is if the reason you don’t have them on your coin is due to die wear or because the gouge in the cap came first, then the gouges in the field happened. If die wear, then you’d have a later die stage of VAM 4A. If it’s because the field gouges showed up later, similar to how the 21-S Thornhead developed, then I’d be inclined to specify VAM 4B as the distinct die stage before VAM 4A that only has the gouge in the cap. I would need to examine the coin in hand, however.