1939-S VDDO VDDO-001

Description

Designated VDDO-001 (VarietyVista Doubled Die Obverse) for the 1939-S Jefferson nickel, this variety displays light extra thickness on IN GOD WE TRUST, LIBERTY, the five-pointed star, and the date — a comprehensive but subtle spread across the major obverse elements of Felix Schlag's design. VarietyVista assigned provisional identifiers UVC-??? and DMR-00?, indicating this variety's catalog position had not been finalized at the time of documentation, though the die stages are recorded: Stage A features a die gouge in the upper 9 of the date at early die state while the reverse is at late die state, Stage B at mid die state (unconfirmed), and Stage C at late die state (unconfirmed). The unusual Stage A combination — EDS obverse paired with LDS reverse — reveals that this die marriage involved a fresh obverse die mated with a worn reverse die, a common Mint practice of pairing new and used dies to maximize die utilization. The reverse carries the RDV-001 (Wavy Steps) designation, identifying a specific reverse design variant where Monticello's front steps exhibit a distinctive wavy contour that differs from the straighter step profiles on other reverse variants. San Francisco struck approximately 6.63 million nickels in 1939, one of the lower S-mint nickel productions of the late 1930s. The 1939-S Jefferson nickel is already noteworthy as one of the earlier issues in the series, and the VDDO-001 designation establishes this as the first documented obverse doubled die for this date-mint combination. Light extra thickness on the motto, LIBERTY, star, and date indicates a low-magnitude hub displacement that produced thickened design elements rather than clearly separated doubled images. Collectors should examine the die gouge in the upper 9 first to confirm the correct die, then check IN GOD WE TRUST under 15-20x magnification for the subtle thickening.

Die Markers

• UVC-???
• DMR-00?
• Stage A:
• Die gouge in upper 9 of date – EDS
• Reverse is LDS
• Stage B:
• MDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by John Komar
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References