1939 Jefferson Nickels
30AnvZ28
Posts: 1,619
What is the difference in them?? I found one in change last week, and looked on the PCGS website... and they have things like...
1939 Reverse of 1938 FS
1939 Reverse of 1938
1939 Reverse of 1940
1939 Doubled Monticello
1939 Doubled Monticello FS
How can I tell which one it is?? I dont know what the difference is between the 1938, 1939, and 1940 nickels are. Thanks in advance!
1939 Reverse of 1938 FS
1939 Reverse of 1938
1939 Reverse of 1940
1939 Doubled Monticello
1939 Doubled Monticello FS
How can I tell which one it is?? I dont know what the difference is between the 1938, 1939, and 1940 nickels are. Thanks in advance!
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Comments
Ken
When the Jefferson nickel was introduced in 1938, the steps on Monticello were indistinct, or wavy.
Midway through 1939 they made a design change which included sharper, distinct steps. The easiest way to tell is
to look at the difference between 1938 and 1940 Mint State coins.
Coins from 1939 are designated as Reverse of '38 or Reverse of '40 to indicated which type of steps. The business
strike mintages are split pretty evenly between the two types.
Nearly all 1939 proof nickels are of the Rev '38 type, though they did use one Rev '40 die to strike a few proofs,
creating the rare 1939 Rev '40 proofs. Nearly all 1940 proofs are of the Rev '40 type. though for some reason they
used one Rev '38 die to strike some coins, creating the rare 1940 Rev '38 proofs.
Hope that helps.
Ken
Edited to add: That took me at least seven minutes to type out - see the above response!
The population scarcity for the Reverse of 38 and 40 are approximately as follows for 1939 business strikes:
Philadelphia: 10% rev 38 and 90% rev 40.
Denver: 50% rev 38 and 50% rev 40.
San Francisco: 75% rev 38 and 25% rev 40.
i'll also add to solid's post that the 1940 Reverse of 1938 Proofs were all struck with one mistakenly used die, but the 1939 Reverse of 1940 were most probably struck from more than one. the easiest way that i know to tell the diffence between the two Reverses is to focus on the top step. on the 1940 Reverse die it was thicker than the remaining steps, on the 1938 Reverse die it was approximately the same thickness as the remaining steps. i find it relatively easy to distinguish from an online/catalog/magazine picture with that criteria. also, the 1939 DDR is always from a Reverse of 1940 die. regarding the scarcity of the various Reverses and Full Step coins for 1939-PDS issues, it's a very confusing riddle to figure out. Breen published some numbers in his Encyclopedia which are often used as a reference but that was before the majority of collectors searched for FS coins. typically the 1938 Reverse should be harder to find fully struck because of the nature of the detail and the strike, but many, many more were produced. add to that the fact that the grading criteria by the major services changed around 2001 and the coins already holdered FS from 1939 weren't noted as 38/40 and we get confusion.
it's probably best to avoid a percentage and just assume that Reverse of 1938 Full Step coins for 1939-PDS issues are scarcer. over time, the market and collectors will determine the numbers and pricing.
i think i tied Ken at seven minutes!!!
Apropos of the coin posse/aka caca: "The longer he spoke of his honor, the tighter I held to my purse."
Nice one !
Mine came from a $5 circ roll off eBay. I wish it was in better condition, but i was happy to have just got lucky enough to actually find one.
Bern Nagengast reported that the 1939 rev. of 38 nickel comprises about 10% of the total Philadelphia mintage, with about 90% being the rev. of 40. My own collecting and observations over the years would roughly confirm this. As for Denver, I believe that Nagengast estimated 50/50 split in the rev. of 38 vs. rev of 40, while my own observations put that at about 60% rev of 38 and 40% rev of 40. In other words, just a few more of the rev of 40 coming out of Denver. For San Francisco, I believe that Nagengast estimated 75% rev of 38 and 25% rev of 40, while my own observations suggest about a 60/40 split.
Bear in mind that Bern Nagengast looked at far more Jefferson nickels than most people do in a lifetime, and that he opened upmany rolls in search of FS pieces. His estimates are definitely good. The only caveat to Bern's estimates is that geography can play a role in the distribution of nickels from the various mints, and therefore bias any regionally-based sample.
Hoot