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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,851 |
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Valued Member
United States
127 Posts |
Anyone who has ever collected Buffalo nickels know that some dates are pretty hard to find with a FULL HORN. From your experience, what would be your top 5 dates that are the hardest to find with that elusive tip of the horn? |
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Valued Member
United States
266 Posts |
I think it pretty much coincides with the rarity of the coin itself. 1913 D&S line type. 1914D. 1915S. 1921S. etc. If I have any of those, I bet the horn is pretty much gone. Maybe you meant to say, of the more common dates, which ones are hard to find full horn. That's the other thing, a lot of people are really liberal about what full horn means. I hate that! Anyway, I don't know the answer. I collect Buffalo nickels but haven't seen a large population of them. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2953 Posts |
For me, it would be the obvious key dates, 1913-S ty-2, 1914-D, 1921-S, 1924-S, and the 1926-S. Now yeah, I too waver back and forth on what constitutes full-horn, but it to me must have a defined tip outline, so technically grades as low as a VF-30 could have a 'full-horn' assuming the rest of the coin is worn enough to warrant that grade. Of course for this grade and higher these key dates skyrocket in value, and same goes for the semi-keys also. Of course, there are those weakly-struck ones, like 1926-D is a notorious one, so one could have one which appears VF-20 but is actually XF-40.
I do have a complete set of these, which took me a while to complete.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4680 Posts |
IMO, the problem lies in the fact that far too many people focus on the horn and base a large portion of the grade on remaining horn detail. The problem with Buffalo nickels is the large number of problematic strike and die issues. Take the 1920-S for example. Striking issues were prevalent with this mintage along with worn dies. That said, there are examples found in low-mid AU that don't have a "full horn". When grading examples like this one must understand the series and recognize die state and strike weakness and deduct accordingly when grading based on wear, and not over deduct for what was already lacking when it left the mint. All that said.. "full horn" rarity will have a number of factors. The tougher ones to find will go hand and hand with low mintage numbers (ones others have listed above), condition rarities (ones tougher to find in higher grades), and problematic strike/die states. A few others not listed would be the 1920-s, 1923-s (examples can be found in MS with no horn detail), 1925-S, occasionally the 24-d and 26-d, and the overlooked 34-d. 34-d is usually more lacking on the obverse detail do to weak strikes, "impossible" to find fully struck, but can also have tough horn detail. It's a bit irrelevant in low grades because it's easily and inexpensively acquired, and usually not found is very low grades, but figured it worth mentioning as an overlooked weakly struck year. Edit: Awaiting the always informative fortcollins post on this. Edited by Ty2020b
08/03/2021 10:00 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1613 Posts |
If you have deep pockets, not hard at all. In order: 1913s type two, 1915s, 1921s, 1924s and the 1926s. I just completed my second set, this one focusing on full four digit dates with little care about the horn, non-acid treated as well. In VG10/F12 slight horn they cost a bit more than I expected for those dates.
ANA member - PAN Member - BCCS Member There are no problems only solutions - the late, great John Lennon
Edited by Ballyhoo
08/06/2021 8:00 pm
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
I've found that many of mine are with full hornes but the rest of the coin is not so good.
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Valued Member
 United States
127 Posts |
Quote:
Of course, there are those weakly-struck ones, like 1926-D is a notorious one, so one could have one which appears VF-20 but is actually XF-40. So, would you say this one grades better than VF20 as it has a full horn?  |
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Valued Member
United States
266 Posts |
i would say the coin is VF, because it has wear in too many other places to be XF.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2953 Posts |
 with HHippo, and say it looks about VF-30/35 with possible weak strike, and with you Tony that I would call it full horn also. This reminds me of the 1922-D Lincoln Cent which is notorious for some weak strikes (I have several) in which one of mine looks F-15, but the probable true wear grade is closer to an AU-50. TY2020b had some good things said... |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4680 Posts |
I would also agree with VF30/35, reverse strike weakness noticeable @ the buffalos head and in STATES.
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,851 |
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Posted 08/03/2021 8:17 pm
