Jeffy Proofs: 39 steps of 40 or 40 steps of 38......

OldEastside

Which is rarer IYO?, Coin Facts has them about neck & neck
with maybe a little edge going to the 39 steps of 40, But is this
really the case out in the field for y'all active in the search, Hmm
MINGOT, and all the rest of ya?, I'm just really curious about these
two varietys, and JUST how RARE these BAD BOYs are, and EST.
mintages fer em. Thanx

Steve

mingot

1939 reverse of 1940 is the rarer of the two.

CPG says URS-9, which is 126-250 -- This seems pretty low to me, to be honest.

mingot

Oh and coinfacts just list the complete 1939 mintage under both varieties since no one knows exactly how many R40 were minted!

stephunter

My own experience is that the 40 rev. of 38 proof is more scarce. I've found about 10 39 rev. of 40's unatributed and only 4-5 40 rev. of 38's.

mingot

man I need to learn to read -- when I read this I had it in my head that you were asking what reverse of the 1939 nickel (40 or 38) was rarer and not asking for a comparison between 40r38 and 39r40. When you compare those, 40r38 is the rarer of the two. I'm using pops and CPG estimates to say this.

OldEastside

Thanks Bill and thanks Vince,

Thats what I thought,
This may sound dumb, but am I to understand that unatributed finds don't reflect the current pop reports?
and is there any reliable estimations on mintages on these varietys either in %'s or true numbers?

Thanks again guys

Steve