1930 Doubled Die Reverse DDR-007

Description

Medium spread manifesting as an extra horizontal bar beneath the L of PLURIBUS identifies this 1930 Philadelphia Mint Buffalo Nickel as the seventh documented doubled die reverse for this Depression-era date. VarietyVista records die markers UVC-262 and DMR-014, with Stage A showing both reverse and obverse in Early Die State (EDS), while Stages B and C remain unconfirmed. The extra horizontal bar beneath the L is a distinctive diagnostic — rather than the typical doubled lettering seen on many varieties, this particular hub displacement produced a linear feature that reads as an additional horizontal stroke below the letter, making it visually striking and relatively easy to identify. The 1930 Buffalo Nickel was struck during the early Great Depression following the 1929 stock market crash, when the nation's economy was entering its most severe contraction. Philadelphia produced approximately 22.8 million nickels in 1930, a modest figure compared to pre-Depression output. James Earle Fraser's Buffalo Nickel design was in its seventeenth year of production, and the reverse featuring the American bison standing on a mound with FIVE CENTS and E PLURIBUS UNUM had become one of the most recognizable images in American coinage. Seven documented doubled die reverses for the 1930 date indicates meaningful variety research on this Depression-era issue, and the distinctive extra-bar presentation on DDR-007 makes it one of the more visually identifiable varieties in the 1930 Buffalo Nickel catalog.

Die Markers

• UVC-262
• DMR-014
• Stage A:
• Reverse and Obverse are EDS
• Stage B:
• MDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by Lewis Fletcher
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References