Rare 1919 Nickel Errors (List & Pictures)
Missing F and Two Feathers can occur independently on a 1919 nickel, while a clip and partial-collar edge can occur together. Identifying the individual features prevents unrelated examples from being combined into one imaginary coin.
Estimated values for 1919 nickel errors run from $15 to $8,000; a nickel on an Argentine ten-centavos blank sold for $6,600. Start with date-area details, then inspect letters, surface layers, the outline, and complex strikes.
| Visible feature | Category | Estimated range |
|---|---|---|
| F absent below date | No F variety | $50–$500 |
| Small inner feather absent | Two Feathers | $50–$3,500 |
| Repeated date or lettering | Doubled die | $30–$300 |
| Extra D or S fragment | Repunched mint mark | $20–$250 |
| Locally missing design | Strike-through | $15–$250 |
| Sunken extra 19 | Dropped filling | $150–$2,000 |
| Peel or deep layer separation | Lamination or split | $15–$600 |
| Missing edge, sometimes stepped | Clip and partial-collar combinations | $75–$800 |
| Expanded or displaced design | Broadstrike or off-center strike | $100–$1,500 |
| Repeated blows with other failures | Multiple strike | $300–$6,000 |
| Small incorrect blank | Cent or Argentine planchet | $2,000–$8,000 |
1. 1919 Nickel The Small F below the Date Is Absent: No F Variety Error
The F beneath the date identifies designer James Earle Fraser. A Philadelphia No F coin appears in a collector registry, but a blank spot in that location needs more examination than the name suggests.
How to Identify
Compare the whole date and surrounding texture with the recorded variety. Die polishing can remove shallow detail, but wear, an obstruction, or scraping can also hide a tiny initial.
A strong date beside an undisturbed missing-initial area is more useful than a closely cropped empty patch. No F is independent of Two Feathers and does not require the feather detail to be missing.
What It’s Worth
$50–$500 is an estimate for a correctly matched 1919 No F example. The registry record has no supplied sale price, and the range does not apply to a rubbed or scraped ordinary nickel.
2. 1919 Nickel Only the Larger Feathers Remain Clear: Two Feathers Error
Die polishing can nearly erase the small inner feather beside the neck. Reported 1919 examples exist for Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco, with mint-specific shapes to compare.
How to Identify
Follow the inner feather’s surviving boundary into the neck area and inspect the adjacent hair. General wear can hide a shallow feather while also flattening surrounding features.
The reported Philadelphia example retains the designer’s F and has an affected area extending toward the neck. Compare each mint separately, checking below FIVE CENTS only where the original mint-letter area survives.
What It’s Worth
$50–$3,500 is an estimated range across identified examples and grades. A 1928-S MS63 Two Feathers nickel sold for $2,040 in August 2019, but that different-year sale is not a 1919 transaction.
3. 1919 Nickel Date or LIBERTY Outlines Repeat: Doubled Die Obverse Error
Philadelphia reports direct attention to small repeated details in the date and LIBERTY. A doubled die carries those extra outlines before striking the coin.
How to Identify
Match several raised features with a supported example, rather than assigning a catalog number from a single thick numeral. The supplied reports establish neither one universal pattern nor a specific attribution number.
Flat shelves from movement during striking differ from rounded repeated design. A worn or chemically treated date can also acquire rough edges that should not be interpreted as earlier original digits.
What It’s Worth
$30–$300 is an estimate for a matched modest 1919 obverse doubled die. The famous strong 1916 doubled die is a different variety and does not establish similar rarity or value for these reports.
4. 1919 Nickel A Mint Letter Contains an Earlier Letter Fragment: Repunched Mint Mark Error
Hand-punched D and S mint marks could retain parts of earlier placements in the die. The supplied 1919 reports concern repunching of the same letter at each mint, not an established D-over-S change.
How to Identify
Inspect the complete letter below FIVE CENTS for a secondary stem or curve shaped like another D or S. The precise direction needs an actual variety match.
Check for disturbed metal, seams, or damage around the mark. The obverse F is unrelated, and glare along an ordinary letter edge can disappear when lighting changes.
What It’s Worth
$20–$250 is an estimated whole-coin range for clearly identified examples. No named D/D or S/S auction record is supplied, and the ordinary Denver or San Francisco coin’s condition remains part of the value.
5. 1919 Nickel Part of FIVE Fails to Appear: Struck Through Material Error
The recorded Philadelphia AU58 reverse strike-through lacks the entire E and about half of V in FIVE. Material obstructed those portions of the design, although the missing letters do not identify the substance.
How to Identify
Compare the full word and nearby sharp detail with the interrupted area. General wear, a weak strike, and scraping can all remove detail without producing the same local obstruction evidence.
A separate MS64 report concerns an obverse strike-through. Its face and grade must not be attached to the AU58 reverse example.
What It’s Worth
$15–$250 is an estimate for confirmed 1919 strike-throughs. Neither supplied specimen has an individual sale amount, so the visible interruption and preservation provide the useful basis for comparison.
6. 1919 Nickel An Extra 19 Is Sunken near the Lower-Left Rim: Dropped Filling Error
The reported Philadelphia MS64 specimen has a recessed 19 around seven to eight o’clock. The proposed dropped-filling mechanism involves compacted material leaving number-shaped die recesses and falling onto a blank.
When struck, that shaped material presses an impression into the metal. This produces a depression rather than the raised extra strokes of a doubled die.
How to Identify
Keep the ordinary date and extra impression in the same photograph, with the portrait upright. Compare the sunken mark’s size and curves with the reported example under low side lighting.
Inspect for a sharp displaced lip or disturbed metal from a number punched into the finished coin. A recessed 19 in roughly the correct location does not alone establish a mint origin.
What It’s Worth
$150–$2,000 is an estimate for an identified dropped-number impression with recognizable shape and original surface. No auction result is supplied for the registry’s MS64 coin.
7. 1919 Nickel Metal Peels or Opens through the Thickness: Lamination and Split Layers Error
Small surface peels, detached faces, and clamshell openings all involve internal separation, but preserve different evidence. The supplied examples include a Philadelphia VG8 matching pair and a separate Philadelphia obverse half.
How to Identify
The individual NGC VF20 obverse half weighs 2.5 grams, and its exposed interior was not struck after separation. A different Denver AU55 clamshell opened about halfway around the edge while staying joined.
Inspect the depth and texture without lifting a flap or widening an opening. Local Denver obverse and San Francisco reverse-edge laminations should not borrow the detached half’s appearance or weight.
A normal loose nickel weighs about 5 grams, measures 21.21 millimeters, and has a plain edge. Use those references to record structural changes, while comparing alleged paired pieces through photographs rather than pressing them together.
What It’s Worth
$15–$150 is an estimate for modest laminations, with clear split-layer or clamshell pieces around $100–$600. The 2.5-gram VF20 Philadelphia obverse half sold for $149 in March 2025.
That price belongs to one piece. It is not the value of the separate registry pair or a reason to pull an attached layer into two sale items.
8. 1919 Nickel A Missing Edge May Accompany a Step: Clipped Planchet and Partial Collar Error
A Philadelphia PCGS MS63 specimen has a 22% ragged end clip. Another coin combines a smaller clip with uneven collar contact, which allowed part of its edge to spread farther than the rest.
How to Identify
Inspect the original formation of the rim at each end of the gap and exclude saw or file marks. On the combination coin, the clip appears near five o’clock on the obverse and one o’clock on the reverse, two views of the same opening.
View its edge from the side to check the step produced by partial collar contact. Buffalo nickels normally have plain edges, so reeding is not required.
What It’s Worth
$75–$800 is an estimate across genuine clips and clip-with-partial-collar combinations. A different-year 1924 MS64 Buffalo nickel with a 4% clip and partial collar sold for $345 in January 2011.
No completed sale is supplied for either 1919 specimen here. A clip and edge step on one coin should be priced together.
9. 1919 Nickel An Expanded Outline Retains the Design: Broadstrike and Related Combinations Error
A broadstrike spreads outward without the collar’s normal restraint while preserving the intended design. The supplied 1919 examples include centered and uneven expansion, a curved-clip combination, and a retained die-break combination.
How to Identify
Follow peripheral details on both faces before judging the enlarged border. Inspect a curved clip near three to five o’clock separately from the spread, and do not treat every wide coin as having the retained die break described on another specimen.
A retained break can leave raised metal still carrying design because the broken die piece remained in place. A separate MS63 coin was struck on a Type I blank, meaning its rim had not received the usual preparation before striking.
Type I here concerns blank preparation, not the raised-ground Buffalo reverse used in 1913. An expanded outline alone does not establish that blank stage.
What It’s Worth
$100–$1,500 is an estimate across broadstrikes and the supplied combinations. In August 2017, the AU53 retained-break coin brought $246.75 and the separate MS63 Type I blank example brought $199.75.
Those results belong to different coins with different preservation and extra features. Neither is a universal price for 1919 broadstrikes.
10. 1919 Nickel The Design Runs Off the Blank: Off-Center Strike Error
The supplied records include a 10% example, a separate coin described as 20% off-center toward the bottom, and a San Francisco 10% example. Each coin retains unused blank metal opposite the design that failed to land on the disk.
How to Identify
Confirm the date and compare the displacement on both faces. A complete design within a wide border suggests broadstriking, while a shift limited to one face suggests die misalignment.
If the original mint-letter area is absent, leave the mint unidentified. Inspect untouched metal for grinding or later flattening and keep the recorded direction tied to the specific 20% coin.
What It’s Worth
$100–$1,000 is an estimated range for identified 1919 off-center nickels. A separate off-center specimen with a reverse wheel mark sold for $432 in March 2025.
The wheel mark is later mechanical damage. That sale should not be transferred to the registry examples with different offsets and surfaces.
11. 1919 Nickel Several Impressions Overlap amid Major Die Damage: Repeated Strikes Error
The PCGS MS64 in-collar double strike also shows partial collar contact. A separate MS63 report describes two strikes with 40% displacement, creating a different arrangement of repeated design.
How to Identify
Trace recognizable repeated features and the order in which later relief crosses earlier detail. Then inspect any edge step or unstruck area as part of that specimen’s own sequence.
A much more complex coin in the CONECA study received at least four strikes while dies were failing. It has a huge raised obverse area, collar breaks at twelve and seven o’clock, and a nearly featureless reverse that the study did not fully explain.
Do not turn that unresolved reverse into a certain reconstruction. A blank-looking face or crushed coin alone cannot establish the studied sequence.
What It’s Worth
$300–$2,000 is an estimate for ordinary identifiable double strikes, with verified complex multiple-strike and die-failure pieces potentially around $1,000–$6,000. No completed sale is supplied for the catastrophic specimen.
The MS64 in-collar example was listed as unsold in June 2008. Strike count is not a rule for multiplying a normal nickel’s value.
12. 1919 Nickel A Smaller Foreign or Cent Blank Carries the Design: Wrong Planchet Error
The recorded cent-planchet nickel is NGC MS61 Brown and weighs 3.06 grams. A different NGC MS62 specimen was struck on a three-gram copper-nickel blank intended for Argentina’s ten-centavos denomination.
How to Identify
Compare composition as well as weight, since the two blanks are similarly light but different in metal. A contemporary cent blank normally started near 3.11 grams and 19.05 millimeters, while the Argentine standard was three grams and 19 millimeters.
The Argentine example retains its date and portrait but loses the tail’s curve and upper portions of LIBERTY and the reverse country name. Match those natural limits with the auction specimen rather than assigning them to the copper-cent example.
Inspect for plating or filing and allow for spreading during striking. Neither blank needed to carry an earlier Lincoln or Argentine design.
What It’s Worth
$4,000–$8,000 is an estimate for a comparable authenticated Argentine-planchet error. The MS62 specimen sold for $6,600 on January 22, 2021.
$2,000–$6,000 is the separate estimate for the copper-cent-planchet type. A 1924 MS62 Brown cent-planchet nickel sold for $3,290 in January 2014, providing a different-year comparison rather than a sale of the recorded 1919 MS61 coin.
Conclusion
A 1919 nickel can combine several minting problems, but each claim still needs its own visible support. Keep an extra date impression, a missing initial, and a missing feather separate until the actual coin shows how they relate.
For larger errors, record both faces, the edge, and any measured metal characteristics. Preserve matching pieces and attached layers, and let unresolved striking details remain unresolved instead of inventing a complete sequence.
