Specialists looking for one variety among unattributed dollars may run into the other, and would consider either a great find.

One of the more unusual Morgan dollar variety features is a relatively recent discovery and is still not fully understood.

In May 2004, Larry Briggs dis­covered a new and apparently very rare 1879-S variety, VAM-56.

John Roberts' "A Guide to the Varieties of the 1878 Carson City Morgan Dollar" is a detailed single date study with a clear case of remarriage.

In 1981, Leroy Van Allen found an 1879-S Morgan dollar with parallel gouges coming out of Liberty’s lower curls. Chris Simpson's found a later stage example.

Dollar production in 1878, when the first Morgan silver dollars rolled off the presses, was a rushed and, in some cases, haphazard affair.

Several varieties of 1902-O Morgan dollars have similar patterns of pitting and crumbling around the obverse lettering, stars, and date.

During most of the period that Morgan dollars were produced, four-digit gang punches were used to sink the respective dates into individual working dies.

In the late 1990s, the market in VAM varieties began to recover from a crash earlier in the decade, thanks in part to several new books on the topic

Research by Roger Burdette in his work A Guide Book of Peace Dollars reveals production of the 1921 Peace dollar commenced on Dec. 28.