Jefferson Nickel type I & II

Tomy

What is the differance between the 1939 nickel, type I & type II coin. I thought I knew collecting untill I began looking at types, D/S, D/D, 3 legged. Has there ever been a type III?

MarineEAS1999

I don't know about any types for the 1939 Jefferson nickel...

There are several varieties depending on the die pairings.

I do know that there are two types of 1942 Jefferson and 1913 Buffalo nickels though.

Leiana

Breen says that the 1939 Jefferson nickels had two reverse hubs, Reverse of 1938 and Reverse of 1940.

Reverse of 1938 has a thinner top step while the reverse of 1940 has a thicker top step.

-Amanda

mirabela

The steps on the Type 1 are kind of "wavy," too. The easiest way to understand is to get a mint state 1938 and a mint state 1940, both with (relatively) full steps, in hand next to one another -- and then start looking at some 1939's alongside them.

Unless you are dealing with high end mint state coins with full or nearly full steps, it does not matter much.

CarlWohlforth

I have photos of both the "reverse of '38" and "reverse of '40" nickels on my website.

When I saw the title I was expecting a question on the two 1942 types.