a little interesting coin

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

If you've been on this forum for more than five minutes you know I'm an avid numismatist.  I'm not just a collector; I study them, hence the label.  

 

You're all quite familiar with the buffalo nickel.  Back in the mid-1930s the government didn't want to replace the dies each year like they normally did.  The Great Depression was hard on the mint, too.  So they polished the dies and used them for several years at a time.  

 

In the case of 1938, the Denver mint got some dies from the San Fransisco mint, polished out the "S" mint mark, and replaced it with the "D" for Denver.  If you look at the photo below, you can see how they didn't polish the S all the way out, so it looks like the D has some extra garbage above it and in the middle hole.  This is known as a "D/S" variety.  There were several variants of that particular variety, and I spent a few hours with a digital microscope attributing it as the one known as FS-511.

 

 

[McCandless]

1 hour ago, Cyrus Cassidy #45437 said:

here were several variants of that particular variety, and I spent a few hours with a digital microscope attributing it as the one known as FS-511.

 

 

 

 

Nice image.  I need a new digital microscope.  Which one are you using?

[Dantankerous]

I love old coins especially Morgan silver dollars. Anything pre 1964 silver gets my attention though. The coin in the picture below is something I got as change from a grocery store. The gal thought she was giving me a 1/2 dollar but it was not. Never seen anything like it...

 

[Subdeacon Joe]

12 hours ago, Cyrus Cassidy #45437 said:

the Denver mint got some dies from the San Fransisco mint, polished out the "S" mint mark, and replaced it with the "D" for Denver. 

 

I've been trying to wrap my brain around how that would be done.  Can you describe that process in more detail, please?

[J-BAR #18287]

 

Googled “100 f”...

[Chili Ron]

Howdy,

Try typing in those letters and learn all about it.

Little country in the horn of Africa.

You just might make a little if you can find a buyer.

Not silver as far as I can tell.

Different tho.

Best

CR

 

[Utah Bob #35998]

1 hour ago, Dantankerous said:

I love old coins especially Morgan silver dollars. Anything pre 1964 silver gets my attention though. The coin in the picture below is something I got as change from a grocery store. The gal thought she was giving me a 1/2 dollar but it was not. Never seen anything like it...

 

They had a nasty Civil War from 91-94. Not unusual on the Dark Continent. We have a military presence there.

That's a pre-war coin. Might be worth a little more.

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

13 hours ago, McCandless said:

 

Nice image.  I need a new digital microscope.  Which one are you using?

 

I honestly don't remember.  It was about $20 on Amazon.

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

2 hours ago, Dantankerous said:

I love old coins especially Morgan silver dollars. Anything pre 1964 silver gets my attention though. The coin in the picture below is something I got as change from a grocery store. The gal thought she was giving me a 1/2 dollar but it was not. Never seen anything like it...

 

 

Djibouti is a small country on the horn of Africa, and happens to be a terrorist hotbed.  It's the part of Africa where the Arabic / muslim cultures have crossed with the black African peoples to form an interesting look.  It's also where USAFRICOM is headquartered. 

[Cyrus Cassidy #45437]

11 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

I've been trying to wrap my brain around how that would be done.  Can you describe that process in more detail, please?

 

Nope, I can't because I don't know more detail than that.  I do know it was manual in those days.  These days, they replace the dies every year.  

[Subdeacon Joe]

58 minutes ago, Cyrus Cassidy #45437 said:

 

Nope, I can't because I don't know more detail than that.  I do know it was manual in those days.  These days, they replace the dies every year.  

 

Thanks for the answer.  I did find: https://www.pcgs.com/news/1938-d-d-over-s-buffalo-nickel-varieties

 

Quote

The 1938-D D Over S variety is one that, on the surface, may prove mystifying. After all, no Buffalo Nickels were minted at the San Francisco Mint in 1938, so how could the 1938-D D Over S overmintmark variety have occurred? Surely, it must have been intentional, right? And intentional it was. The U.S. Mint had originally appropriated Buffalo Nickel dies for San Francisco, but this decision was later recalled. However, with preparations already underway to begin production of the Jefferson Nickel that debuted later in 1938, the powers that be at the United States Mint deemed it more economical to salvage the Buffalo Nickel dies intended for San Francisco. They did so by repunching a “D” mintmark into the “S”-mint reverse dies and then shipped them to Denver for use on the production line.

 

Sounds like they took a brute force approach and pressed it into a master to try to reshape the S to a D.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

4 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Thanks for the answer.  I did find: https://www.pcgs.com/news/1938-d-d-over-s-buffalo-nickel-varieties

 

 

Sounds like they took a brute force approach and pressed it into a master to try to reshape the S to a D.

I think fill the die’s S with some material and then cut a D. Doing that to each individual die would explain there being several variants.