I tried to do a search of Coin Talk about this. It seems we had this thread once before. So is there a mint mark difference on these or am I seeing things? Also if anyone can find that thread or a link that would be awesome. I even tried Coneca and came up empty on the search. Thanks, Michael
Well, you're not blind. One mintmark is definitely fatter. I don't know if one or the other is particularly rare or desirable though.
Michael, The one on the left appears to be a Late Die Stage and the one on the right appears to be an Early Die Stage! As the Dies begin to get worn and due to repeated grindings and polishing, the Mintmark will become mushy and thicker.
Michael, In Bernard Nagengast book The Jefferson Nickel Analyst he says that the 1948-s is the nicest appearing S mint mark of all the S mint nickels from 1946 to 1954. Frank is most likely right about late die state from worn die I looked at the 21 1948-s that I have and they all are nice with full size S mint marks I will look for some more info for you. Bruce.
I would agree that the "fatter" mintmark is due to excessive die wear/polishing. I can find no mention of any mintmark varieties, for that issue, in any of my references. You may be thinking about the 1941-S issue, which has a Large and a Small mintmark variety, as well as an Inverted mintmark variety.
In Breen's book he talks about a sharp vetical serifs to S (about 85% of this date), and a knob-tail S (about 15% of this date). It looks like you may have the two varieties. Larry Nienaber
1948-S Mint Marks Larry Thank You ever so much! Those are exactly what I was looking for. I,m positive the mushy S is a later die state as these are lacking a lot of detail. The other two S mint marks were a puzzle and You solved it! The photo,s are right on the money for both mint marks. Thank,s Again Daniel
