Morgan Quality Control?

There are thousands, but that's because there were thousands of dies produced. Not counting 1921, there were over 3500 die pairs produced for Morgan dollars. Many of them were interchanged during their lifetimes, creating thousands of additional die pairs.

Prior to 1878, the Mint had reached the mintage of one million Dollar-sized coins only twice in a single mintage year. Morgans were mandated to be produced at the rate of two million per month. Everything was running at peak capacity, the dies had to be pushed to the limit of their lifespan and quality control had to suffer slightly just to get enough coins out the door.

That would be a win for us.

True mechanical errors are pretty rare with Morgans, as you assume. The majority of VAM identifications are for pretty arcane features. The mints were quite willing to keep striking cracked dies - obviously, since die cracks abound with Morgans - and I suspect that was a deliberate decision on their part given the production pressure.

I just can't let this one go without comment. ContraJame used the terms "quality control," "errors," and "VAMs" in such a way that it could be interpreted a VAM is an error.

A VAM is cataloging number for the specific die pairing used to mint the Morgan or Peace dollar. A VAM is not "a broken fourth right star". The broken fourth right star is a "pick-up point or PUP" or characteristic or the obverse die used to make that particular dollar.

I cringe on eBay when I see a listing touting all the spectacular VAMs on a particular Morgan/Peace dollar. There are usually many PUPs, but only ONE VAM.

I agree with what SD stated, I feel "IF" the quality control, were like say the same as today for the ASE'S, We would NOT have things to keep us as busy, searching/seeking all the smaller differences we have come to enjoy.....I also feel things are what they are today because of the route chosen to get the demand met, and any other way, would leave us plenty less Morgan/Peace Dollars to look at for those wonderful ECD'S, THE K-TOP12, THE TOP 100 LIST, THE TOP 50 LIST, THE 40-HITLIST AND MANY, MANY MORE......PS, Also Thank You LCVA, AND AGM, Who together helped find/feed a passion I did not even know I had........ :)