1941-S 5c FS-501 Revisited. - Coin Community Forum

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In the course of researching mint marks, I looked up my 1941 Large-S nickel again. According to the Bowers guide, the Large-S was a single die, so I never really researched FS-501 any further. But it turns out that according to Variety Vista, there are 16 possible die that were punched with the Large-S (a.k.a. Trumpet Tail) mint mark in 1941. All are apparently regarded as FS-501 by attribution.

I am still figuring out how to distinguish varieties by mint mark shape and placement. So I am turning to the pros on this one. Apparently some of the 1941 Large-S mint marks are even RPMs, and there is a separate FS-502 for a specific strong RPM variety.

So which one is it? Some are clearly not matches, but there are at least three or four that could easily be this nickel.

http://www.varietyvista.com/04a%20J...MMS00201.htm

http://goccf.com/t/449214

It's not RPM-001 (MM placement is wrong), but it is MMS-002, which is a very nice find!

Edited by SamCoin
09/15/2023 10:38 am

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Thanks, Sam. =)

I was thinking die 6,7,8,10,11,12,13,14 are candidates. As you point out, it doesn't seem to be an RPM, which rules out die 1-4. Die 5,9,15,16 seem way too thick to match this mark, especially on the bottom.

I never really studied the different MM's - I think it high time I did. Thanks for this post.

There are definitely a number of mint mark varieties, RPM, errors that are attributed by Fivaz-Stanton and PCGS.

After looking at all the mint mark positions on the dies, I think #14 seems strong for vertical, horizontal, and shape.

An interesting thread.
Are any of the die scratches that are shown for #14 on your coin?

Well, I went through the coin very thoroughly with the VV pictures for each die. This nickel has wear, and I can't find any definitive markers to confirm the specific die. The tiny features like die scratches have essentially disappeared or are mixed in with many microscopic scratches from circulation. Perhaps some day if I acquire a coin microscope, I will return to this nickel for more analysis.

Thanks for the help anyway, guys. It was fun! =)

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