1938 D Buffalo Nickel - Unslabbed

Looks high mint state. 65, perhaps.

Can you remove this from the plastic and show us larger images?

Very nice example. Given the through-plastic photos posted, I'd say a very strong MS65.

I was thinking exactly what fortcollins stated...
Nice coin...

fortcollins is the go-to guy here for Buffalo nickels, I too look forward to his book recommendations. I suspect he will say the same as I do. You just can't get the knowledge from only books, but...

Here are a couple of references to get you going now without spending a dime, all from the Newman Numismatic Portal and free to read online or download.

The Complete Guide to Buffalo nickels by David W. Lange
https://archive.org/details/compgui...falo1992lang

Buffalo nickels: The Abraded Die Varieties - by Ron Pope
https://archive.org/details/buffalo...lsab2006ronp

As to books learning how to grade them? There are a lot of grading books out there, PCGS has a good one, Photograde for circulated coins, ANA Grading standards book, but really nothing will teach you like having a mentor and looking at thousands and thousands of coins yourself, go to shows, auctions, look at everything you can. Study and remember each date, mint mark combo, that is really how the experts learn, it's all about getting your hands on as many different coins as possible.

I also can't recommend enough how good the ANA Summer Seminars are, I've taken the grading courses at least 4 times and the counterfeit course a couple of times, along with photography, EAC, VAMS and others courses. They are the best!!! You will never learn as much as you will by attending one of them for a full week of coin immersion.

David's book is older but still mighty relevant as too how he breaks down the dates and mint analysis he does is invaluable and still I believe a great starting point.

No problem. The thing about the ANA Summer Seminar, that is so different, beyond the fact you are spending a full week immersed into coins and other like minded collectors, you will spend each day with experts in the field of your choosing. In grading, I started before there was third party grading. But the later courses now usually spend the first half the day going over a series of coins first, discussing, strike quality, things to look for, luster by dates, key stuff to know. Then lots and lots of coins in slabs being passed around the grades covered, where you write down your opinion/guess before passing the coin on, and grading the next one. You spend hours doing this. It's similar to being in a grading room at a TPG. After the box or two has been graded by the class, the grades are revealed and the class gets to talk about them, see which coins had the most trouble on getting correct and why. More discussions, followed by the same thing over again. It's one thing to look at a few double eagles and give an opinion on grades, it's another thing entirely to have several hundred to go through and have to try and get the correct grade in a set amount of time. Not unlike a TPG grading room would be. You will see so many coins your head will spin. You will hold coins you have only dreamed of seeing in person before, piles, stacks and stacks of slabs. It's mind numbing the value of coins they bring in for you to grade and discuss.

Plus the evening time is full of bull sessions and just getting to make new friends and talk coins 24/7 the side trips are also a fun break, some of numismatic related like the Mint floor tours or trips to ANACS, Cripple Creek, while others are just fun, like Broadmoor Hotel Tavern and the Colorado Rockies Baseball game. It's well worth the money and time to attend at least once if you can.

If you are young (under 18) then try to get a scholarship, I got my first trip completely covered by the ANA through the "Florence Schook" YN Scholarship program it's not a hard thing to complete and it costs nothing, but pays out huge!

Both great, must have references posted by westcoin!

I'll add a third: The authoritative reference on Buffalo nickels by Wexler, Pope, and Flynn. The other two will pretty much cover this one though.

There are a lot better graders on here than me. I'm just an old horse-trader. My opinions and fifty cents will get you half a cup of day old gas station coffee. The people who taught me grading were the real graders, and they had a world of patience for a pesky teenager filled with questions in a land long ago and far, far away. Hubert Carcaba, Virg Marshall, and Bill Knight were particularly helpful.

I'll echo the three books already listed. Ron Pope's book is THE resource for Buffs. Start there, learn that book inside and out, and then read it a dozen more times.

Grading Buffs is a challenge. The older grading guides are still the best for this series. Yes, I'm going back to clay tablet and stylus days with these.

Martin Brown and John Dunn, A Guide to the Grading of United States Coins (Western Publishing 1975). Yes, it's line drawings. Yes, it's stuck in the distant past with a lingo long forgotten. But the scholarship that created this book is still solid.

Ken Bressett, The Official American Numismatic Association Grading Standards for United States Coins (Whitman, 2019 ed).