Buffalo Nickels

About 2 years ago, a lady came into the shop with a huge box filled with Library of coins and dansco books of Buffalo nickels. There were 60, mostly complete, sets. Paid just under $5,000 for all of them. I don't know why I did it. I found a book with every nickel ever minted from 1866-1938 and switched out the nicest buffs from the other books for a complete nickel collection. I decided to keep that and get rid of the other sets. Buffs are fun and a complete set can be put together for cheap. I give out complete sets as gifts. They look really spiffy in the old Library of Coins books. Good luck on your hunt.

The two feathers are pretty cool. I'd like to someday own a nice high end one.

Wanted to add, you should just do the normal mints and no errors or otherwise you'll be doing it for a long time.

I just completed a set of Buffaloes- it was my passion for quite awhile. I think the most important facet of set collecting is to decide on a set of ground rules up front.

1- What grade Buffalo is the minimum you find acceptable?
2- Within that grade, can you afford to complete a set to your definition (e.g. for me I only wanted date/MM coins, no errors)?
3- If your collection needed to be widely mixed grades, would you be happy with the set? Or would you more enjoy a set where the coins are relatively close in grade
4- What else is important to you? Do the coins need to be dirt-free? Spot-free? Do you mind rim nicks, hits to the surfaces, or scratches? How about the features? Will variations in strike be acceptable? Or do you prefer the same degree of details on each coin you collect within a grade? This is very important with Buffaloes, as some date/MM combinations are nearly impossible to find with good strikes.

Just some ideas- tell us what attributes are important to you and I bet we can offer more ideas.