Buffalo Nickel Date Unknown

Sap, Thank you for the date information that you posted! I would have never thought that the date would have been so important that it would mean cleaning a coin in acid to restore the date would make the coin more valuable to most collectors! As a coin collecting newbie Ive essentially had it beat into my skull the absolute worst thing you can do to a coin is to clean it if you have any intentions of ever reselling it, so hearing this has the mischievous child in me pullin out all 200+ of my buffalo no date nickels. Y'all know what I will be doing this weekend... some good youtube tutorials then I might be the owner of some dated Buffalo nickels.. as long as I can find the cleaner that does this!

So I gotta add a couple more things..
1. Westernsky, for some reason your emoji made me seriously lol... Thank you!
2.Scopru, thank you for your opinion about giving these babies an acid dip! Now I am not so sure about my decision to bathe them all, so I think I will just try a couple and see how badly it messes them up and if it looks to be worth it or not. I try not to be too mischievous, however, once I get the notion to see how something works not much will stand in the way of me seeing how it works. But I think its fair to say you talked me down off that cliff I was on and I have a feeling I will be grateful you did. If I find some of the acid needed for the bath I will definitely post some before and afters.
The previous paragraph is why your also made me lol... So thank you!
Now should I start a new topic with questions about the cleaning products? Don't want to upset anyone by straying from the original topic.
Dear Moderator:
Im trying to be a good newbie

Oh and since Ive only seen the topic of acid baths come up when discussing the date on Buffalo nickels, is this practice something specific to Buffalo nickels or is it sometimes acceptable to use the same practice with other coins that have lost their agedentity?

Thank you all for your interest in this topic. The coin is on its way and I think I'll get it in the next week.
As you wrote, I will try to determine the date without using chemicals, but if this does not bring results, I will resort to vinegar.

It should always be "acceptable" to take an unidentifiable coin and make it identifiable, by "cleaning" or "restoring" it. Acid-restoration of dates comes under this category. So does digging up an ancient coin that's encrusted in dirt and "cleaning" it until the coin can be properly identified, even if you need to use harsh cleaning methods that would ordinarily be frowned upon. To collectors, and pretty much everyone else, an unidentifiable coin is a piece of scrap metal; identifying it always adds interest, and therefore value.

Yes, you can do it on other coins that have lost their dates, though on most coin series, the date is well protected and thus does not need the help. In the American series, Standing Liberty quarters are the next-worst in terms of worn-away dates. The rarer variety, the Type 1, can be told by means other than the date, but Type 2s you'd need to acid-restore. However, SLQs are silver, not cupronickel; vinegar won't be strong enough, and I believe Nic-a-Date contains hydrochloric acid, which silver merely points at and laughs. You'll probably need to get your hands on some dilute nitric acid to get something that works with silver.

I just received a package with a coin. I have already tried to determine the date with a magnifying glass and light. I think it's 1918, but I'm not sure. I've already prepared the vinegar to determine the exact date. Give some tips on how to do this correctly.

I still can't tell if it is a 1916 or 1918. Might need to go back in the vinegar for an extended bath of 24 more hours. It surely can't hurt it!

Thanks for the update!