1915 Two Feather

1915                                     Two Feathers                               FS-401                          38433

I obtained the 1915 2F imaged above in a trade with a fellow collector. It is in a PCGS VF35 slab. I have found an unattributed 1915 2F on Ebay, but it has a hint of a feather and only grades about VF20. I have not submitted it to PCGS for attribution.

The 1915 Two Feather can be a “pure” 2F, with the third feather entirely abraded. The PCGS coin above is such an example. The area of the abraded feather is not as “smooth” as on the 1913-D 2F. The abrasion marks are clearly visible.

This year the mint appears to have adopted what I call a “Wipe” policy. Both of my 1915 2F’s are covered by what appear to be fine die scratches running over the entire surface of the coin, devices and fields, obverse and reverse. It is as if the entire face of both dies were Wiped by an abrasive instrument. The strength of the Wipe is greater on the PCGS coin (the lower grade of the raw coin may account for some of the difference). The angle of the Wipe also varies slightly between the two coins but generally runs from the North East to the South West on the obverse and the North West to the South East on the reverse. Note that this is a different direction than the abrasion lines that removed the third feather which run roughly North South. If you look back at the closeup of the missing third feather, you can see both the Two Feather abrasion lines and the Wipe lines. In fact all the closeup images show the Wipe lines.

Please note that although I call this a “Wipe”, the possibility that it was an actual wipe of the dies with abrasive material is remote. A physical wipe would be unlikely to get into the crevices of the dies with the regularity that appears. There should be a different explanation for the cause of the “Wipe” lines.

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Obverse Clues

My PCGS coin has a feature not present on my raw coin: a different third feather! If you look below the top feather, you can see the “echo” of the feather. This is most unusual (and amusing). Looking at the superimposed images in the Two Feather Overview, the outline of the feather may have been caused by a clash with the buffalo’s forehead.

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Both my 1915 2 Feather nickels have a partially abraded designer’s initial F. The initial is barely discernible as an F but there is a definite indentation in roughly the right place and shape.

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Reverse Clues

Besides the full coin Wipe, I have not found any reverse clues, yet.

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What to look for

As with most 2F varieties, the missing feather is the feature to look for. Because multiple dies were used to create 2F varieties, there are no definitive clues. After all clues are just clues. The wipe of the entire coin might be a good confirming clue although there are wipes on coins with three feathers. However, if you find a different, mis-located, third feather, I would be convinced!