1878 S (Vam 79) Broken B VAM 45

Harry, took me a while to figure the confusion here on the reverse. Sometimes my mind goes faster than my fingers. I should have typed "later used with VAM 9 in 79. My bad. Your coin has nothing to do with the VAM 79. Your coins does appear to have a slight chip and pitting on the top of r serif. This die was probably taken out of service when the serif partially broke and pressed back into service in 1879.

Harry, a new reverse die was intended to be used in 1879. Dies were not as easy to produce in the late 1800s so some of the reverse dies for 1879 were used in 1878 and some for 1878 were used in 1879. The same reverse die design of 1879 has been used since ever since. The only other exception happened at the Carson City mint when they used a reverse die from 1878 in 1880.