1938-D Over Mint Mark WOMM-003

Description

Cataloged by the Wexler Team as 1938-D 5-cent WOMM-003, this over mint mark variety appears on the final year of the Buffalo nickel series, struck at the Denver Mint. The Buffalo (Indian Head) nickel, designed by James Earle Fraser and produced from 1913 through 1938, is composed of 75% copper and 25% nickel, weighing 5.0 grams with a diameter of 21.2 mm. Denver produced 7,020,000 Buffalo nickels in 1938, the last issue before the Jefferson nickel replaced it. The WOMM-003 displays a D/S overmintmark, where the diagonal curve of the original S mintmark is visible inside the final D, and the bottom of the S can be seen just below the D. This indicates that a reverse die originally prepared with a San Francisco S mintmark was subsequently re-punched with a Denver D mintmark, a practice that occasionally occurred at the Mint when dies were repurposed between facilities or when mintmark corrections were required during die preparation. The reverse of this variety is also cataloged as a doubled die in the Wexler Doubled Die Files as 1938-D 5-cent WDDR-001, making this a dual-attribution coin. A close Class II spread is visible on the letters of E PLURIBUS UNUM, while light Class VI extra thickness shows on USA and FIVE CENTS. No significant obverse die markers have been noted. The 1938-D Buffalo nickel is already the key date of the final decade of the series, and examples exhibiting this D/S overmintmark with concurrent reverse doubling represent one of the more interesting variety combinations available to specialists who collect Fraser's beloved bison and Native American portrait design.

Attribution History

• s:; Wexler Variety ID: 1938-D 5¢ WOMM-003
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References