1930 Doubled Die Reverse WDDR-006

Description

Toward-center spread — a Class II distorted hub doubling mechanism — characterizes WDDR-006 for the 1930 Buffalo nickel, affecting the inscriptions USA and E PLURIBUS UNUM, with lighter doubling on FIVE CENTS and the back of the left rear leg of James Earle Fraser's iconic bison. Class II doubling occurs when the hub distorts under pressure during the die sinking process, displacing the secondary impression inward toward the design center rather than in a uniform directional shift. The 1930 Buffalo nickel was struck only at Philadelphia with a mintage of approximately 22.85 million pieces, as neither Denver nor San Francisco produced nickels that year — making it a single-mint-facility date where all die varieties originated from one die shop. No significant obverse die markers were noted, but the reverse carries a distinctive diagnostic: a die scratch running above the tail of the bison, providing an independent identification checkpoint for confirming the correct die. The Wexler Team cataloged this variety under Wexler Variety ID: 1930 5¢ WDDR-006, with no additional cross-references from CONECA or other attribution services currently known. Fraser's deeply sculptured bison design, with its fine hair texture and muscular leg detail, provides surfaces where even moderate hub displacement becomes detectable — the back of the left rear leg in particular offers curved contours that reveal the inward shift of the secondary impression when examined under 10-15x magnification. The toward-center spread direction means the doubled image contracts relative to the primary, producing slightly thickened letter strokes on USA and EPU that narrow rather than expand the overall inscription footprint.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Larry Briggs Cross References: None known
• None known; Wexler Variety ID: 1930 5¢ WDDR-006
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References