RRDC-5c-1944S-02R Bisecting Rim to Rim Die Crack

Description

Spanning the full diameter of the reverse die, this second bisecting rim-to-rim die crack for the 1944-S wartime Jefferson Nickel traces a fracture path from one edge of the die face to the opposite edge, producing a continuous raised line across struck coins. The 1944-S nickel was struck in the wartime 56% copper, 35% silver, 9% manganese alloy, with the large S mintmark placed above Monticello's dome to distinguish the emergency composition from standard copper-nickel issues. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins on September 21, 2019, with no known cross-references, this variety documents die fatigue in a production environment where the altered alloy's physical properties affected both planchet behavior and die wear patterns. Two reverse RRDCs for the 1944-S date indicate recurring die fracture events during San Francisco's wartime nickel production, where approximately 21.6 million pieces were struck. Bisecting cracks differ from partial die cracks in that they demonstrate a complete failure of the die's structural integrity across its full width — once a crack traverses the entire die face, the two halves can shift slightly relative to each other under striking pressure, sometimes producing a step or displacement along the crack line. The wartime silver nickels of 1942-1945 are actively collected both as a short-run composition variety and as a source of interesting die failures that may relate to the unfamiliar alloy's metallurgical characteristics.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Mark Clewell
• Cross reference: none.  09/21/2019.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References