2003 Nickels -- Another FS Question and "Depression" Observation (Images)

Sequitur

I've been looking through some 2003 MS Jefferson rolls and have noticed what I would call a depression "pattern" in the Monticello steps. Take a look at the first third of the steps in the photos below -- you'll see the steps appear to narrow, or bunch together. Under a loupe, where the steps appear to narrow, it actually looks like a mild depression when the nickel is in hand.

What's interesting is I and several other people have noticed it in scores of mint rolls, nickel after nickel. Anyone see something similar in their rolls? Also, would these qualify as full step nickels, even with what I would consider a depression in the steps?

Four nickels from four different rolls:

clackamas

I guess i had notied it but did not think anything of it. It must be a flaw on the master hub to get to so many dies. There were some master hubs in the first of the war years that were doubled so nearly every coin from a couple of years is a DDO.

spy88

Sequitur, all 4 of your Jeffs are full steps. PCGS would give them a FS label, NGC would label them 6FS.

The depression has no bearing on whether or not they are FS. Your third pic of steps shows minute "chatter" or minor nicks to the steps but they do not break the line. In the fourth pic, there is a hit to the 5th and 6th step at pillar 4. This also does not break the line. If it had been deeper and had gone all the way down to the incuse of the steps, it would have rendered that Jeff as a 6-6-6-4---not a full step coin with either TPGC. If it had only broken the sixth step, it would be a 6-6-6-5 and still a FS with PCGS but would get a 5FS from NGC.

For all the info you could want to know about Jeffs, steps, varietys, mintage, etc., go to varietynickels.com. Best Jefferson site available.

David

Sequitur

Informed response. Thank you.

Sequitur

Bumped for the Sunday Ebay quarterbacks.

jonesy

Those are nice Full Steps!!

BeeMan

I noticed that too. It is even present on the proof nickels all the way back to either 1991 or 1990. I just went through my proof sets last month to see what kind of condition they were in.