Validation Sought - 1915 2 Feather Buffalo

The problem with a 2 Feather designation is that the feathers were accidentally polished off the die when a worker was working to extend the dies' useful life.

So while they are fun to collect, they are not an actual mint error, but a die variety. The companies are not consistent in assigning varieties such as this on their labels. FS designations for nickels are also something, though not die polishing varieties, the companies are all over the place about.

If you want not just words, but definitive proof on this concept, download my essay on No FG half dollars. It uses PCGS website links so you can verify for yourself that the rookie level No FG half dollar variety attribution is something they get (verifiably) wrong 30% of the time (its worse with the other two dates of 1972 and 1966 SMS coins):

https://www.coincommunity.com/pdf/N...ors_Main.pdf

Summarizing...if you are happy you have a 2- feather, then it is. Trust your own eyes b/c there is no legitimate standardized and verifiable method the companies use to assign that attribution.

BTW...I like this one and would call it a 2 feather if it was mine.

(Thanks to Bobby for the working link!)

There are at least four die pair from 1915 with abraded third feathers. Two are true two-feathers and the others are two-and-a-half-feathers. Your coin is a true 1915 2F from the second die pair, the one with the strong designer's initial and strong EPU. The first die pair is the more sought-after coin, but both two-feather coins are nice finds.

Ron Pope's designation on your coin is 1915 15P2F-02.

In terms of grading, several things with this coin will make the grade different from what the eye may see as wear, but really isn't. First, the die polishing itself on the two-feather coins is pretty severe, and abraded some of the design elements that normally would be used for technical grading. Second, the die clashes that led to the die polishing took time to reach the point where they were polished, and generally did that much later in the die's life. The die was in a later die state, with some of the design elements worn down when the polishing occurred. Here, your obverse die appears to be late die state (LDS), and the reverse die slightly better, in middle die state (MDS). Note the heavy die polishing lines in the fields across the entire surface of the coin.

One thing of note is what appears to be a diagonal lamination across the obverse. It is possible that this is a stain, rather than a lamination, but the left side of it looks much more like a lamination. These are common in Buffalos, and don't really add much to value, but can deter some buyers because of the visual appearance.

What I see on your coin is an average strike from a worn and heavily polished obverse die. The rachis is incomplete on the second feather and largely missing on the first. The calamus and feather tie are merging with the hair. Despite this, there is still separation of the hair from the forehead, some detail in the knot and braids, and decent detail on the Indian's eye, nose, and lips. The weak LIBERTY is a design feature on 1913-1914-1915 Buffs, so it should be disregarded in grading those three years. On the reverse, the buffalo's head, tail, "F" of FIVE, and "S" of CENTS are merging with the rim. The TED of UNITED is similarly starting to merge. The lack of detail on the buffalo's head is the result of abrasion of the second feather/"U" of UNITED clash, so must be disregarded. Almost half of the hair on the buffalo's hump is visible, but the left foreleg lacks detail.

All things considered, I think the grade here is on the VG-10/F-12 bubble. The TPGs don't do well when grading circulated Buffs with abraded dies or in later die states, so a TPG could be anywhere on their grade. In hand, on a bourse floor, I think it's in that VG/F realm.

Nice coin, great find, and a definite keeper.

FC

Thank you kindly for your really informative analysis.
It is much appreciated.

If you read this, please have a look at my first post in what I think may be an AU 1929-S 2 feather buffalo with a sharp strike.

Thanks again.

And , nice!

Yea not sure what's happened here. My 1915-S obverse has taken over the OG picture.

OG picture as per below.