Newbie Question About American Gold Buffalos

Here is one example that I found. The coin that I was going to purchase from a local dealer looked about the same as this.

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Hello setex and welcome to the forum. I think what you are seeing is just a slightly off center strike, and is perfectly acceptable during the minting process. You can probably see this same effecxt illustrated on half of the change in your pocket to some extent, and just because it's a gold Buffalo doesn't mean it will be "perfect" per se.

While I may have not used the correct/exact terminology to explain this to you, I believe it is a common occurence and one that doesn't hurt or help the value of the coin.

Thanks guys. When I start thinking about dropping around $900+ for a coin, I start getting kinda nit-picky.

I guess I will just keep my eye out for one that is better centered.

More likely a slightly misaligned die. The die in theory should be perfectly centered in the coining chamber and there are adjustments that allow the die to be shifted back an forth in any direction. In this case it has been adjusted a little to much to one side. I isn't far enough off to completely remove the rim or to have the die hit the collar so it is not considered to be an error and it has no change in value.