1914 VDDR VDDR-002

Description

Documented by VarietyVista with die stage markers still partially unassigned (UVC-??? and DMR-00?), the 1914 Buffalo Nickel VDDR-002 exhibits extra thickness on UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and FIVE CENTS on the reverse. The incomplete UVC and DMR codes indicate this variety has been identified and cataloged but not yet fully integrated into VarietyVista's numerical tracking system — a situation that occasionally arises with varieties from less frequently studied dates or denominations. The die stage documentation reveals three stages: Stage A at Early Die State (unconfirmed), Stage B at Early-to-Mid Die State where die clash marks appear through PLURIBUS and under the chin of the obverse portrait, and Stage C at Late Die State (unconfirmed). The die clash evidence at Stage B is diagnostically valuable — it indicates the obverse and reverse dies struck each other without a planchet between them during production, transferring reverse design impressions to the obverse die and vice versa. The 1914 Buffalo Nickel, designed by James Earle Fraser, was struck at the Philadelphia Mint in copper-nickel alloy (75% Cu, 25% Ni) at 5.0 grams and 21.2 mm diameter. Fraser's Type II reverse, with the bison standing on a raised mound and FIVE CENTS on the exergue, had replaced the original Type I design (bison on a raised mound with FIVE CENTS on the mound) in 1913. Philadelphia's 1914 mintage of 20,665,738 Buffalo Nickels represents the denomination's early production years, and the doubled die reverse evidence of extra thickness across the major reverse inscriptions places VDDR-002 among the documented hub doubling events for this classic early twentieth-century American coin design.

Die Markers

• UVC-???
• DMR-00?
• Stage A:
• EDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage B:
• Die clash through PLURIBUS –
• EMDS
• Die clash under chin – EMDS
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by Mark Alvarez
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References