Owner Comments:
This piece is very lustrous and extremely well struck for a 1939-D. This coin has full head, thumb, knuckles, branch stems and skirt lines. The fields are rather clean and aside from a small tick on the central obverse there are no noticeable abrasions.
This coin is housed in a NGC # 4 slab, which first appeared on the market in late 1989. I was really looking for an S minted coin for my date set but this extraordinary, ultra-gem example---I simply could NOT pass up.
This issue usually has a dull central strike (especially Miss Liberty's right facing hand) but fully struck gem examples (such as this one) do exist. Even though the 1939-S costs more and has a lower mintage, the 1939-D is noticeably more difficult to find well struck up in my experiences. Surface preservation can vary widely as well from smooth and clean to moderately abraded. Luster is generally frosty but satin examples do exist. This issue usually comes fully brilliant but lightly toned examples exist, as well. One unusual characteristic of this issue is that it sometimes appears to be struck on the reverse by a die of the type used in early years to produce matte-like proofs.
Important varieties:
V 101 – Doubled D mintmark north. Die crack through R in DOLLAR to lower wing.
In overall MS rarity this coin is 42nd of 65 and in middle date MS rarity it is 16th of 19 even in MS 65 or better. It is the most common MINT-MARKED coin from 1934-1940 barely edging out the 1940-S. Superb gem MS 67s are quite rare and the price jump is HUGE (MS 67s cost over $2000).
There are about 5500 coins known in ALL MS grades. The finest known are 2 NGC MS 68 examples (one of which is an NGC star *). In MS 66 the PCGS Population is (749/75) and NGC Census is (549/86)
Mintage at 4,267,800