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 Replies: 25 / Views: 3,136 |
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Valued Member
United States
158 Posts |
ok you sold me, I have a roll of dateless buffalos, nothing to lose right?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
8904 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Be sure to check for identifiable dates first. There are several that can be identified by very fragmentary dates and the position of the F or other features. A dateless Type 1 is obviously 1913, and you'd reduce the value if you acid date it. 1920 and 1921 have a more curvy hair ribbon, and 1921 has distinctive hair detail, so you can identify those. I found a '21-S this way! The 1916 double die and some other varieties can be identified by features other than the date and the 1917/8-D over-date has a distinctive die crack on most examples. Obviously the 3-legged and similar varieties can be identified without a date (though a '37-D is unlikely to be dateless). Also, if there is no mint-mark it's probably not worth acid dating because basically all the key dates are branch mints. You can sell dateless Buffaloes for at least 15 cents apiece, but nobody wants an acid-dated common date. I have a couple threads recently on the subject because I'm trying to assemble a super cheap set of Buffaloes by acid-dating. https://goccf.com/t/91413https://goccf.com/t/91730https://goccf.com/t/91966 |
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Valued Member
 United States
230 Posts |
A 1917 is worth 2 bucks. D mint and S are worth closer to 10.
Pretty happy uncovering a 2 buck coin though. Anyone know why the 17 is worth so much?
Edited by fur_coin_talk
07/06/2011 12:03 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
Most of them have been worn dateless.  |
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New Member
United States
43 Posts |
Thats the main reason I join CCF to learn from you guys!! I had no idea you could find the date this way, I have a few of these myself and if I get as good of results as fur I'll post for you all to see. Should be a lot of fun. The anticipation is already building! I have learned something new almost every night since I joined. Many thanks to you all for your willingness to share your experiences.
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Valued Member
United States
210 Posts |
Quote:
Be sure to check for identifiable dates first. Learned more about this coin in one short post than all my previous years combined. One would think with an avatar like mine (and love of the coin) I'd know better. Sheesh. I shutter to think how many dateless Buffalos I discarded while roll hunting as a kid. And the 1921 dime I lost. And the silver coins I spent (but in my defense, I started collecting prior to 1965). And when I polished a perfect Morgan my mother gave me.  Ahh, those were the days. Any links to some good side-by-side buffalos showing the detail you describe? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
One of the links I posted has several very good images of the 1918/7-D die crack.
The 1921 has three grooves of hair detail coming out of the top of the band at the top of the braid. They're very distinctive - just Google an image of a 1921 and compare it to any other date. They're present even on well worn specimens (though increasingly smaller, get your magnifier). I have a picture of a dateless 1921-S I discovered in my main thread linked above.
Also, compare the ribbons on any known 1920 or 1921 to any other date. I've found that partial date 1920 Buffaloes are as common as sand on a beach - the triangle between the "2" and "0" and the center of the "0" seem to never go away, so I don't know how many of those you'll find that are completely dateless.
This is all information I've learned in the past week or so, so there are probably a lot more tricks that I haven't found out about yet.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
This thread also shows one of the other advantages of the vinegar method over nic-a-date. That restored 1917 looks a lot more natural than any nic-a-dated coin I've ever seen. (If you think about it when you see it though you can still tell it has had the date restored because no buffalo that heavily worn, no details worn into the rim etc. would ever have a full four figure date.)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4132 Posts |
I'm still on the fence about that. Vinegar makes the entire surface of the coin on both sides porous and bleached looking. Yeah, Nic-A-Date makes the date area look cruddy, but the reverse remains untouched and is still nice to display.
Also, if you use Nic-A-Date on the date, you can go back and do the whole coin in vinegar later to make everything match. Or you can try for a more complete restoration like the Buffalo Reincarnations guy. You can also decide if it's worth your time to do the vinegar soak or whatever for just another common date. The Reincarnations guy restores the date area first for exactly that reason.
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Replies: 25 / Views: 3,136 |
First Page
Posted 07/05/2011 6:38 pm
