1914-D Buffalo...........

I have 132 dateless Buffalo nickels I stopped taking them out of circulation (or I would have had a lot more) when I was told by a coin dealer that dateless coins were worthless and that if you acid them that even if you now have a date the process makes them worthless. Do you think that is true?

Well, he does not know what he is talking about. "Chemically restoring" dateless Buffalo nickels to find out what possible date a particular coin is, is a process to enhance the date and possibly the coin, to bring out more desirable details. Please, go to weerdsteevs website and you will see some magnificently restored coins that would otherwise, be never known. I recently restored a 1914-D from a dateless coin, and sold it for $30. I have also recently found a 1918/7-D by the restoration process.
I'm sure that dealer would buy this coin in a heartbeat once he knew what it was. If not, he's ignorant and that's ok.

I am having trouble getting the date to photograph, but will try again this weekend. I figured I'd give the vinegar a shot at the ones with mintmarks before trying nic-a-date. Its far less damaging IMO. I can only see the dates under magnification though.

I tried the white vinegar but nothing happened. Is the coin to far gone?

MOblue, how long did you let them sit in the vinegar? Depending on the specific coin, I have had cases where I got a date quickly, and cases where it took a couple of weeks, and some cases where I had nothing after a full month (which is when I give up). You also need to change the vinegar every week or so when it starts turning blue.

Steve's rule of thumb for dateless Buffalo nickels: If it has no hint of a date and it has no obverse doubling in the feathers or in the ribbon (think 1916 DDO) you cannot devalue it by restoring the date.

If you pick up dateless nickel with a "D" mint mark and you restore the date and it turns out to be "1914", there are PLENTY of people who would be willing to give you more than 5 cents for that coin.

Still, I can understand why most dealers would NOT want to give you more than 5 cents. Most dealers don't want to have restored Buffalo nickels as an alternative option for their customers, so there's not much sense in them acquiring restored Buffaloes for their "stock". But to say that a restored 1914-D has no value beyond the value it had BEFORE being restored is just plain pig-headed. What he should say is that he won't buy it from you because he doesn't want to deal in altered coins, but that a lot of private individuals would gladly pay a premium for it.

I just bought a whole bunch for $4.00 each, so if you can't do better than THAT (and it should be WAY EASY to do better than that) I'd be happy to buy it from you.

Steve's rule of thumb number 2: If it has no date and no mint mark, don't waste your time restoring it unless you're just experimenting or bored. A dateless Buffalo nickel from the Philadelphia mint will probably not appreciate much in value by having its date revealed. About the only exception is 1914-P...and it's just not worth the search.

I tried a few in vinegar yesterday after reading this thread. A couple of them had dates show up, and they also developed some discoloring in the corner that looks like someone previously tried nic-a-date.