1939 Doubled Die Reverse DDR-013

Description

Thirteenth in the reverse doubled die census for the 1939 Jefferson nickel, DDR-013 displays light spread and extra thickness on E PLURIBUS UNUM — Felix Schlag's rendition of the national motto positioned above the Monticello building on the nickel reverse. VarietyVista assigned identifiers UVC-627 and DMR-023, documenting three die stages: Stage A at early die state (unconfirmed), Stage B where both reverse and obverse surfaces have reached mid die state, and Stage C where both surfaces have progressed to late die state. The confirmed MDS for Stage B and LDS for Stage C provide collectors with a documented two-point die wear progression for tracking this variety across its production life. The reverse is classified as RDV-002 (Straight Steps), referring to the version of the Monticello design where the entrance steps appear with straight rather than curved lines — a reverse design variant that helps researchers track which master hub generation produced each working die. Philadelphia struck approximately 120.6 million nickels in 1939, only the second year of the Jefferson series, and the already substantial DDR count (reaching at least 013) for this early date reflects the intensive variety documentation that second-year-of-type coins often receive from specialists. Light spread with extra thickness on E PLURIBUS UNUM indicates the doubling falls at the lower end of the visibility spectrum, producing thickened letter strokes rather than clearly separated secondary images — a characteristic that requires careful comparison against known normal specimens to confirm. The Latin motto's serif letterforms are particularly sensitive to hub displacement, as the fine serifs and thin stroke connections amplify even minimal misalignment into detectable extra thickness. Collectors should examine E PLURIBUS UNUM under 15-20x magnification, noting whether the letter strokes appear uniformly thicker than those on confirmed normal 1939 nickels.

Die Markers

• UVC-627
• DMR-023
• Stage A:
• EDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage B:
• Reverse and Obverse are MDS
• Stage C:
• Reverse and Obverse are LDS

Attribution History

• Discovered by Timothy Wissert
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References