Exploring The 1938-D D Over S Buffalo Nickel Varieties

PCGS - The Buffalo nickel series, running from 1913 through 1938 and designed by James Earle Fraser, yields many rare and alluring varieties. These include rare overdates, scarce doubled dies, and even missing anatomy on the bison that appears on the reverse of the coin. And then there is the fascinating 1938-D D Over S Buffalo nickel, minted during the last year of production for series.


Buffalo nickel, 1938-D/S, PCGS MS68

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.

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