The Story: Partway through striking 1979 proof coinage, the San Francisco Mint swapped out the hand-punched "S" mintmark tool for a new one — trading a blobby, half-filled "S" for a cleaner, clearly separated one. Collectors later split the year into two varieties, Type 1 ("Filled S") and Type 2 ("Clear S"), and the Type 2 punch turned out to have been used for a shorter run, making it the scarcer of the pair across every 1979 proof denomination — nickel included.
The Object: Jefferson nickel, proof strike, San Francisco Mint, Type 2 "Clear S" mintmark variety. PCGS certified Proof 68 Deep Cameo — heavily frosted devices against near-black mirror fields. Note on terminology: this is a mintmark punch variety, not a mint error — the die change was a deliberate tooling update, not a production mistake. The earlier draft's "mint-error milestone" framing has been corrected accordingly.
The Curation: Encapsulated by PCGS, archivally stored, certification independently verifiable.
The Case & The Acquisition: Built for variety specialists assembling a complete 1979 Type 2 proof set, and for Jefferson nickel date-run collectors who know the difference between the two mintmark punches and want the right one. Offered at $60.
The Story: Partway through striking 1979 proof coinage, the San Francisco Mint swapped out the hand-punched "S" mintmark tool for a new one — trading a blobby, half-filled "S" for a cleaner, clearly separated one. Collectors later split the year into two varieties, Type 1 ("Filled S") and Type 2 ("Clear S"), and the Type 2 punch turned out to have been used for a shorter run, making it the scarcer of the pair across every 1979 proof denomination — nickel included.
The Object: Jefferson nickel, proof strike, San Francisco Mint, Type 2 "Clear S" mintmark variety. PCGS certified Proof 68 Deep Cameo — heavily frosted devices against near-black mirror fields. Note on terminology: this is a mintmark punch variety, not a mint error — the die change was a deliberate tooling update, not a production mistake. The earlier draft's "mint-error milestone" framing has been corrected accordingly.
The Curation: Encapsulated by PCGS, archivally stored, certification independently verifiable.
The Case & The Acquisition: Built for variety specialists assembling a complete 1979 Type 2 proof set, and for Jefferson nickel date-run collectors who know the difference between the two mintmark punches and want the right one. Offered at $60.
