1918/7 Buffalo Nickel--A Useful Diagnostic Tool.

I have been studying the 1918/7 Nickel in hopes of finding one online. After reviewing dozens of lower grade examples, I have arrived at a useful diagnostic tool for detecting one in auction photos.

While the outer shape, especially the flat top, is certainly a good diagnostic in higher grade examples, I've found that the geometry of upper/lower loops of the 8 is a much better diagnostic for worn coins. For example, if you saw this picture on eBay--you might wonder if it's the 1918/7. But, what if the date just took a few hits and was worn to this appearance? It's also easy for our eyes/brain to see what we want to see--which makes a tool especially useful.



To answer that, I created this little tool to use in photo software. How this works: the graphic denotes the positions of the upper and lower loops in the 8 on the 1918/7. It works equally well for lower-mid grade coins. You simply scale the tool to fit the upper left and lower right edges of the "8" in the date. On the overdate, the two red dots will be roughly centered in the loops. On the regular 1918-D, they will not. I've found this really clears up a lot of questions I've head searching for this overdate.



And yes--the coin I posted earlier passes this test. Here's the tool in a large, useful size you can use as an overlay. If you want a scalable EPS version, email me.