Posted 07/18/2025 12:14 pm
What a wonderfully thorough answer, fortcollins! Thanks! It's sometimes frustrating to live in a day and age where more than three sentences is considered a "rant". Well, rant on. Very educational!
I love Buffs, but I still have a fair bit to learn about them when it comes to the finer detail and production issues. So let me ask this: I felt like there was some lack of detail in the hair leading down to the ribbon at the top of the braid. Is that also a die polishing issue?
Concerning branch mints, one real boon of living in NZ is that our closest brach mint is SF.
On a marginally related note, what is the state of records relating to distribution of branch mint coins to various destinations? I'm thinking particularly of 1914-D and 1916 DDOs. I brought this up a few weeks ago in another thread, but I'm wondering in specifically about the supply of coins to the Panama Canal Zone, that having only just been under US control a decade or so by the mid-teens. I'll try and get some photos of my most recent 1914-D on a new thread, but I think it's the 8th one I've gotten here in a couple decades. I've paid less for them in the past than I did for this one, but it's the only Denver coin I've found over and over here in New Zealand.
A little looking around the web revealed some interesting details about NZ trool ships during WWI transitting both the Canal and NYC en route to the European theatre. Included in the firsthand accounts of people on one of the ships in 1916 were people who exchanged various small items (including coins specifically!) with folks waving to them from the shores of the canal. Knowing the issues Panama had with money, and that the US had control of the canal, I'm trying to work out what sort of US coinage might have been circulating there.
And then the same ship ended up in NYC awaiting a convoy to Europe. While ashore, the locals had a grand old time showing the Kiwis the city and surrounds for a couple of days. Then the ship took off to join the convoy, but failed to meet it, so it returned to NYC for a few more days! So there was at least one obvious opportunity for Kiwis to pick up some US coinage, and in Panama, too, if there were US coins there. On returning to NZ, the coins tended to get chucked in a box and gather dust. Unfortunately, cleaning coins to one degree or another is a frustratingly common practice even among some "collectors" here.
I've confirmed that a number of 1916 DDO Buffs have turned up here in the last couple of decades. I've yet to lay hands on one. I also have my eyes open for a 1916 Standing Lib.
A boy can dream.....
Oh, also watch for a thread with some similar questions concerning production quality on some 1923-S Buffs. I really need to refine my photo skills to get better details.
I love Buffs, but I still have a fair bit to learn about them when it comes to the finer detail and production issues. So let me ask this: I felt like there was some lack of detail in the hair leading down to the ribbon at the top of the braid. Is that also a die polishing issue?
Concerning branch mints, one real boon of living in NZ is that our closest brach mint is SF.
On a marginally related note, what is the state of records relating to distribution of branch mint coins to various destinations? I'm thinking particularly of 1914-D and 1916 DDOs. I brought this up a few weeks ago in another thread, but I'm wondering in specifically about the supply of coins to the Panama Canal Zone, that having only just been under US control a decade or so by the mid-teens. I'll try and get some photos of my most recent 1914-D on a new thread, but I think it's the 8th one I've gotten here in a couple decades. I've paid less for them in the past than I did for this one, but it's the only Denver coin I've found over and over here in New Zealand.
A little looking around the web revealed some interesting details about NZ trool ships during WWI transitting both the Canal and NYC en route to the European theatre. Included in the firsthand accounts of people on one of the ships in 1916 were people who exchanged various small items (including coins specifically!) with folks waving to them from the shores of the canal. Knowing the issues Panama had with money, and that the US had control of the canal, I'm trying to work out what sort of US coinage might have been circulating there.
And then the same ship ended up in NYC awaiting a convoy to Europe. While ashore, the locals had a grand old time showing the Kiwis the city and surrounds for a couple of days. Then the ship took off to join the convoy, but failed to meet it, so it returned to NYC for a few more days! So there was at least one obvious opportunity for Kiwis to pick up some US coinage, and in Panama, too, if there were US coins there. On returning to NZ, the coins tended to get chucked in a box and gather dust. Unfortunately, cleaning coins to one degree or another is a frustratingly common practice even among some "collectors" here.
I've confirmed that a number of 1916 DDO Buffs have turned up here in the last couple of decades. I've yet to lay hands on one. I also have my eyes open for a 1916 Standing Lib.
A boy can dream.....
Oh, also watch for a thread with some similar questions concerning production quality on some 1923-S Buffs. I really need to refine my photo skills to get better details.
Do not read this sentence.
