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 Replies: 14 / Views: 1,099 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6495 Posts |
Spotted this 1935 Buffalo nickel in the wild on ebay earlier in the week. Just arrived and has already been dispatched for an acetone soak. I will post detailed images later, but I thought folks might find it fun to try their hand at identifying the variety (particularly our new folks, I think the old hands are going to know this variety immediately). Seller's pics from the ebay auction:   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2843 Posts |
Good eye BM, I won't ruin it for the new members.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2843 Posts |
Gotta ask, how much did you spend on it?
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
6495 Posts |
Quote:
Gotta ask, how much did you spend on it? $4.25 + 0.95 s/h. A true cherry pick. =) |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6495 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2843 Posts |
Quote:
$4.25 + 0.95 s/h. A true cherry pick. =) ....  Fantastic BM!  |
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Moderator
 United States
188204 Posts |
Excellent purchase! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3641 Posts |
Fantastic cherry pick! I saw the obverse die crack and started grinning. I knew what you had just from that.  Very nice example!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6495 Posts |
Thanks, guys. =) It's always a great day to receive high marks on a Buffalo nickel from fortcollins! Any opinions on grade? I had ventured a quick guess at XF, but I know there are many subtleties to properly grading a Buffalo nickel. This one seems like a rather late die state, just based on the rivulets of metal flow from Die Deterioration. At my current level of knowledge, I'm not sure that I could tell the difference between a VF/XF coin from a fresh die, vs. an AU coin from a worn hub or worn die. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3641 Posts |
Your coin is matching LDS obverse and reverse. The strike is average for 1935, which means a decent strike. The second feather has a full rachis and calamus, and the first feather has nearly a full rachis. The buffalo's eye, beard, foreleg, and rear leg sinews are visible. There is a decent amount of die clashing and very heavy clash polishing. On the obverse, the clash polishing has affected the Indian's hair, cheek, and the braid knot. On the reverse, the clash polishing has abraded quite a bit of the buffalo's head and fur details on the upper back. IMHO, the actual circulation wear is consistent with a borderline AU-50/AU-53 coin. That said, I could see a TPG misreading some of the clash polishing as wear, and knocking this one down to EF-40/45. The coin is better than that. I'd leave this one as a raw coin, or just send it to Variety Slabbing Service or the like for variety attribution only, and let the bourse floor quibbling settle the grade/appearance issue by price adjustment. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2150 Posts |
I was going to say, some doubling on the "I" and "E" on the FIVE CENTS... Pay no attention to this remark. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
73986 Posts |
Congratulations on the cherrypick!
Errers and Varietys.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6495 Posts |
FTC, thanks for sharing your expertise. You alluded to something I had been wondering about for a while. Die clashes seem prevalent on Buffalo nickels during the teens and twenties. Yet by the thirties, you don't see many coins with lettering from EPU clashed under the jaw. However, those same coins often have the clash remnants through the reverse EPU lettering. Did the Mint just get better at detecting die clashes and scrubbing out the evidence on the obverse dies? I had no idea that this nickel could possibly make an AU grade. Finding this needle in the ebay haystack was truly a stroke of good fortune. =) It might be a challenge to resist the siren call of PCGS and TrueView. I will look into the Variety Slabbing Service. Would an ANACS holder also be seen as a worthy home for this coin? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6495 Posts |
Just so the information is searchable in the future, this 1935 Buffalo nickel is a specimen of the well-known 1935 5¢ Doubled Die Reverse ( DDR) FS-801. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5193 Posts |
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Replies: 14 / Views: 1,099 |
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Posted 06/20/2025 1:02 pm
