Many older looking Nickels in this box. No Silver enders but this showed up! Looks like a nice one. Hopefully more nice on the back of it.
Not familiar with it being a reverse of a 1938 or 1940? Help apperciated! I'm just in shocked after flipping this over.
The diagnostic in this case is the S in PLURIBUS. You have the 1940 RDV, so this was a later production coin. It's in fine condition!! I suspect a liberated coin from a passing collector's collection. And now it's yours.
It looks like to me that most of that damage was from contact in a bag when it was first produced. With it in hand, you are probably in the best position to determine if there is wear in the usual high spots. AU I think, but with it in hand, you might be able to assign damage to transit rather than circulation.
Very lucky that you didn't get a circular roller mark on that obverse. I found a 1950 D ender that was AU/BU otherwise.
Here's the outward end of the 1950 D. You can see outside the outer windows the marks left by the roller. It also had some damage to the high spots in the column area (unprotected). But a 1950 D...so I'll take it. My first 1950 D from CRH was a BU coin...clearly a liberated specimen. It was taken some time in the late 70s and sat in an old printer's drawer, in a slot where type characters were kept, for about 30 years before being put into a Dansco album. As I'm sure you are aware by all the CRH events you have had, liberated coins are reasonably common (1939 S...impaired proofs, etc.). We can only hope that we intervene in a timely fashion to preserve the character of a coin.
I agree -- but sometimes I feel a little twinge, because I'm also actually preventing the coin from developing the "character" it otherwise would. I mean, circulation is what they're made for...
Yes, Jeff...had the same thought when typing it. When I come across those specimens, I often wonder if the folks liberating a coin, valuable or not, take notice of the pristine condition. To them it's clear: meant for spending!!
