1938-D D/D Buffalo

The 1938-D D/D Buffalo nickel shows a repunched D mintmark, where the initial D punch was struck and then restruck slightly off-position, leaving traces of the first punching visible beside or beneath the final position. The variety was created through routine mintmark correction procedures in which a die with an initially misaligned mintmark was corrected by additional punching. The result shows both positions of the D visible on the finished coin.

Identification requires examining the mintmark under magnification. The diagnostic appears as a doubled or tripled D, with the different positions visible through careful inspection. Multiple sub-varieties of the 1938-D D/D exist depending on the specific positions of the repunching, and specialists catalog them separately in detailed Buffalo nickel variety references.

The 1938-D D/D varieties are less famous than the 1938-D D/S but are collected by Buffalo nickel variety specialists. They command modest premiums over the standard 1938-D and are available through specialist channels at prices that reflect their limited but adequate populations. For collectors building comprehensive Buffalo nickel variety sets, the D/D varieties round out the 1938-D representations alongside the standard issue and the D/S.

Repunched mintmarks were relatively common at all three mints during the Buffalo nickel era, reflecting the hand-punching procedures used to add mintmarks to working dies. The 1938-D D/D is one example of many such varieties across the Buffalo series, and specialists who study mintmark varieties find the 1938-D production particularly rich in diagnostic opportunities.