1943/42 S Jefferson Nickel Error?
cincyruss
Posts: 5 ✭
I would really appreciate anyone’s advice on this coin. I tried to do as much research as I could before making this post. I’m not as familiar with errors and varieties when it comes to Jefferson nickels so I’m not sure if I just have a 1942-S double die obverse with a slightly rotated mint mark on the reverse or something more or nothing at all.
I was going through my collection of raw nickels looking for key dates and of course the first thing that popped up for 1942-S nickels is the rare Frith nickel with the S mint mark to the right of Monticello. Then I saw there’s only one known. So knew I didn’t have that. But as I started looking at the coin further I noticed several variations on the coin that when checked against other coins on PCGS I could see some similarities in regards to the obverse but not with the reverse.
So I’m pretty sure I have a double die obverse. You can see from the first photo doubling on the letters. More obvious on the LIBERTY and the 2 on the Date.
Then when you look at the reverse this is where things get confusing for me. It has the S mint Mark above the Dome as it should for a 43-S war nickel. However I noticed the position of the mint mark isn’t centered above the dome like all the ones I saw in PCGS were. It seems to be rotated more to the left and up higher than some of the others.
See second photo.
So I tried to line up the mint mark with the letters above it by drawing straight lines to see if they matched with the ones in PCGS. All the ones in PCGS lined up similar. I’m attaching three more photos. The first one is my coin and the other two examples I marked PCGS.
It’s not much of a huge rotation, maybe a few degrees or more, the left of my S lines up with the Left side of the B above and all the PCGS ones line up to the right of the B. I couldn’t see any other that were similar to mine. And there were probably 25 coins listed on the site. So at first I thought this isn’t that big of a deal. Not every mint mark is going to line up exactly at the same spot even though you can see from looking at the photo it’s noticeable with the naked eye that’s it’s not centered. So I started to look at the actually mint mark and this is where i don’t know if I’m imagining things or not but I don’t think my S is the same as the other 42-S mint marks listed on PCGS. The ones I saw on PCGS looked taller and more of a space in between the curves and the curves themselves. See photos.
So I got out a 43-S from my collection to compare to and I noticed my 42-S is more similar to the 43S mint mark then the other 42s I saw. I’ve never heard of any variations in the shapes of the S mint marks from each year on the nickels. So I’m guessing maybe the rotation or maybe since mines not in mint state condition it could just be worn down.
It made me think though with the date, the 2 really looks like it could have had another date stamped over it. With the way it flares out at top like the 3 and the bottom right of the 2 it flares up at the end which if was just a double die I don’t know why it would raise up just at the end. And areas inside the 2. Not sure if that’s part of the 3. Too dirty to tell and I’m afraid to mess with. See where I made notations.
So that’s my dilemma. Any ideas?
Oh I almost forgot the last part. This is where my mind must be playing tricks on my eyesight but look at this last photo of the reverse.
Inside the first window from the right side of Monticello I swear I see a faint S in the window. That or a backwards 2. I know it’s impossible. I’ve stared at this coin so long I’m hallucinating. But for fun took a 41S nickel out and compared it to see if where the S to the right of Monticello would line up across and it did. But it’s got to be a defect in the planchet or like I said my imagination.
Look forward to hearing your thoughts! Thanks
I’m sorry the photos didn’t come through in order.
Comments
This is what I was referring to that my S doesn’t look like the other 42S on PCGS but did look similar to my 43-S I pulled out to compare too.
None of the above - just an ordinary 1942-S nickel.
Mint mark positions vary on pre-1990 coins, as the mint marks were punched into the dies by hand.
Wow not even a DDO? I must need glasses. I compared to others that were ddo and saw similar things like larger E in Liberty and the R and I thought for sure the date. The other 2’s on reg 42-S are way smaller. Maybe it’s just worn down. So hard to trace the doubling with all the grime around the letters and date. Oh well thanks for the help
You don't need glasses - you need knowledge, experience and an eye for varieties. You can start by studying varieties at a site like varietyvista.com and searching for those instead of looking at random coins.
TLDR
Just look at the pictures. 😉
Features will naturally thicken as they wear.
What does DDO mean to you? That's an acronym with three letters. If you can't describe how each of the three words behind those letters apply to your coin, that's a good sign that your coin is not a DDO.
"Inside the first window from the right side of Monticello I swear I see a faint S in the window."
Just pareidolia:
"pareidolia"
/ (ˌpæraɪˈdəʊlɪə) /
[noun:
the imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist, as in considering the moon to have human features]
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"