What Is Restored Date On Buffalo Nickels?

I asked him for a free restored nickel too and got it yesterday. Pretty nice, actually. I sent him an email and asked what happened to his posts. He said they were taken down because the forum said he was trying to advertise for free on their site. Too bad because the guy's got an interesting site and he really is giving away free nickels with no strings attached.

bq I didn't see where you told how to use the vinegar to get the date to restore. What kind of vinegar do you use and what is your process?

jfr - This guy restores the whole nickel not just the date. I'm telling you, I have one of his coins right here in my hand and it looks great. No gross looking acid mark by the date. The coin is uniform looking and even has a full horn! The one he gave me is just a plain old 1916 P-mint, but the key word there is GAVE. He was giving these things away as samples of his work before his posts were taken down. His website even describes part of what he does to get them to look like this. You said Fraser would turn over in his grave... he actually talks about that in his website.

I received mine today too, it looks fine to me.

http://www.buffaloreincarnations.com/

I 'found' that I have a 1917-S when I gave it a vinegar bath. It looks a lot better than a Nic-A-Date burn, but not as nice as Steve's restored Nickels on that website.

Thanks for the website address but I don't know. I looked at the nickels in his photo gallery and they looked a little to good, like he's doctoring the photos or something.

Check it hourly, when you can read a faint date, you're done.
Wash the Nickel in soap & water, then dry.
It took 3 hours for my Nickel.

The nice thing with a 'weak' acid like vinegar is that the coin looks 'natural', and it doesn't involve toxic substances and hours of work like the full-out 'restoration'.

Not surprising. He's got a good thing going and probably doesn't want to give away any trade secrets. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the chemicals there (like the bottle of ammonia) are only there to throw other would-be restorers off the track.