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 Replies: 10 / Views: 2,505 |
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Valued Member
United States
163 Posts |
I know many of the people here frown on cleaning coins or restoring them, but I personally search for Dateless Buffalo nickels just to restore the dates. For me, that's fun because I never know what I get. Once, I got a 1913 Type I. But last week, I bought seventeen of them (I don't buy a whole lot). About seven or eight of them have been restored to the date being readable - and I have three 1918s. From the looks of some of the others still being restored, I think there may be at least two more (I like to restore to where you can see most of the date). Maybe I just happened to buy a bunch of 1918s, but I was wondering if there are other people who restore dateless Buffalo nickels who find as many 1918s as I do. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2120 Posts |
Quote:
Once, I got a 1913 Type I I don't think you needed to restore the date to identify it as a type I. Edited by Namachieli
06/15/2011 1:11 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2602 Posts |
A range of dates can be seen. Based on what you said, you got 3 (so far for sure) out of 17 that were 1918. This is not out of the oerdinary I don't think. 1920 is probably the most common, given it's high mintage, but 1920 also is the most common in partial date lots.
The vast majority (>75%) of the dateless buffalos are going to come back as 1913-1920 range, which is only 8 years- random chance (not taken into account mintage) would say at least 2 will be 1918. The you factor in the mintage.
The Type Is can be picked out by the reverse and do not need to be restored (expect for practice).
weeerdsteev hopefully will chime in as he has a ton of expertise in this area.
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Valued Member
United States
397 Posts |
How do you restore buffalo dates?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2602 Posts |
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Valued Member
 United States
163 Posts |
The only reason I restored the 1913 is because it was with the first lot of dateless Buffalo nickels I got. I just assumed that it had been circulated a lot more than the others because the FIVE CENTS was worn off.  I have yet to find 1920 dateless Buffalo nickels. So far, I've gotten (from this lot) two 1916s, a 1926, a 1928, three 1918s, and a 1915. All of them are Philadelphia. I restore (clean is more like it) the nickels with vinegar and salt. I don't remember where I read that mix at (maybe here?), but I don't plan to sell the nickels so I go ahead and restore the dates. How fast the dates appear depend on the nickel and the strength of the mixture. I don't have an exactly measured mix, but I've noticed that when there is more salt, the dates appear faster. Some nickels take five minutes (literally, this happened once) while others take a week and a half. |
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Valued Member
United States
163 Posts |
Here's a list of the cleaned ones right now: 1914 1916 x4 1918 x2 1926 1928 9/17 of the nickels I think there's also a 1925 and a 1918. I put the 1915 in to clean it just to be sure it's a 1915. I only clean them enough to see the outline of the date. Edit: Because I couldn't see the space that makes a 1916 a 1916 and not a 1918  . Apparently for me in this lot, 1916 is the 1964 of the Dateless Buffalo nickels in this group of nickels. Edited by Manuel
06/15/2011 3:09 pm
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Valued Member
United States
368 Posts |
do you have any pictures of what a restored one looks like? thanks!
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Valued Member
United States
163 Posts |
My restored nickels look dateless. I see the date by holding a small flashlight at an angle while turning the nickel to see the date. I can take a picture of the nicest nickel so far (a 1918). Took fifty pictures to get it right.....can't make my hands steady  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2424 Posts |
not sure what chems your using. I find that muriatic acid, standard pool acid works great! I have sold a few on ebay and they come out great! |
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Valued Member
United States
163 Posts |
I usually get a little plastic cup and I fill it about halfway with vinegar. Then I pour in a lot of salt. I stir it with a teaspoon, then put about four nickels in at one time. I check the nickels every couple hours to see if the dates have appeared. I've found that with more salt, the faster the dates appear. Hopefully you can make sense of that mess of words.  |
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Replies: 10 / Views: 2,505 |
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Posted 06/15/2011 1:27 pm
