“Dateless” Buffalo Nickels

Omegaraptor

I was just at the LCS and asked if I could purchase a dateless buffalo nickel or two to experiment on. The owner took out a roll of buffalo nickels he was willing to sell for 15 cents each and allowed me to search through them after he noted a 23-S with a visible date he allowed me to have for 15 cents.

After some searching, I found a few more dated buffaloes. I found a 13 T1, one 20-D, three 20-S, one 21, one 25, and this coin:

Based on the wavy ribbon I thought this was a 20-S and got it for $0.15, but upon taking it home and examining it closely I found that there was enhanced hair detail. It is a 21-S! Rather dingy condition, but 15 cents for a non-acid 21-S is a heck of a steal. A good hole filler for sure.

Check your dateless buffaloes a little closer, folks.

Hallco

Other than using acid...what is your recommendation on figuring out the dates?

Omegaraptor

@Hallco said:
Other than using acid...what is your recommendation on figuring out the dates?

This will help with 20, 21, and 24. Other than that, you just have to see if you can make out digits.

Hallco

Thanks for the info!

koynekwest

Both the '21-P and S are one year subtypes. They are the only dates in the series to have that enhanced hair detail above the ribbon knot. Those from 1926 to the end of the series, with the exception of the '31-S show the last digit of the date on top of the braid ribbon. Those from 1913 thru 1925 show the last digit of the date to the left of the ribbon tie.

Timbuk3

Nice !!!

Jinx86

I have several hundred dateless buffalos at the shop. No dealer has the time to search third dateless in such a way and make money doing so. That and there is the trouble of selling buffalos with nearly no date.

Although the hair details tip is new to me, and for that I thank you. I'll be saving that image to my Buff file.

OldEastside

Well, I learned something today, Thanks

Steve

ricko

Excellent information on the hair/ribbon detail... Thank you, learned something already today. Cheers, RickO

BUFFNIXX

I had the same thing happen to me last week. Bought a dateless roll of buffs on flea bay. They were guaranteed to be
at least 8 mint marked and when i looked at the first S mint coin in the roll I immediately knew it was a 21s as I could tell by the fact that the obverse die is unique to the 1921 p and s coins as koynequest has explained above. And when the date was brought out with nic-a-date it was a 21s. a nice ag. One thing not mentioned about the 1921 p and s, on this unique obverse die the two ones in the date both have “notches” or "serifs” to the top left of each numeral while all other dates excepting 1921 have no serifs.
buffnixx

BuffaloIronTail

On 1921 coins, the knot itself was re-engraved for just that year. Look at the provided pictures and you can instantly see the difference.

The knot on 1921's have detail all the way to AG and below.

I consider 1921 coins to be a one year Type Coin. It is, like 1913 Type I, unique.

Pete

koynekwest

Here in the first two images are the date positioning differences in the pre-1926 issues and in the 1926 and later issues.
The second two images show the difference between the hair detail above the braid ribbon of the 1921 issue and all other dates in the series. As Pete says this shows on low grade coins. Even dateless coins can be identified by this feature alone.

koynekwest

1 in the second set of pics is a 1921. However, most issues other than the 1921 will not show this kind of detail in the braid.

koynekwest

Number one, that is. That damn hashtag got me again.

Azurescens

This is a great thread!!

Namvet69

I am printing this out and sticking it in my CPG. Thank you for that. Peace Roy

StrikeOutXXX

Learn something new every day. Went through 2 rolls of dateless I have, found:

1920 - 7
1921 - 3
1924 - 2

No mintmarks though.

The 21's were much easier to see with both the wave and the hair detail.

The 20 & 24 are were hard to tell apart for me.

So silly question - I've seen 1916 SLQs certified with no date with the verifiable design difference - and that coin is obviously worth it value-wise at FR2.

Of these dates, the 21s is probably the closest, although it seems even best-case scenario is a break-even. Would PCGS/NGC/ANACS certify any of these without dates based solely on the diagnostics given?

As for the other dates, even if you can ID them, put them in a 2x2 - what do you guys do with these after you cherrypick them? I could throw them into one of my junk bins, but can see customers questioning how I even know what they are. Do you guys set aside the few better ones then nic-a-date them then junk bin them?

koynekwest

If I see one with the correct Mint mark style and position and it's a "D" Mint I'll check it for the 18/17-D. Also an "S" MM with the weak LIBERTY found on 1913 Var 2-1915 for the '13-S Var 2. Other than the 16/16 those are the only dates worth restoring (and restoration isn't needed to identify the '16.)

LanceNewmanOCC

.
fwiw, i saw a youtube video of a process that seemed better than nic-a-date. gave the whole coin a nice even albeit look by comparison.
.

TwoSides2aCoin

You can have them for $.15.

DBSTrader2

"You can have them for $.15"

Delivered?

DBSTrader2

LanceNewmanOCC: What non-"Nic-a-Date" process did you see on YouTube? I just bought a bunch of dateless Buffalo's to seed in YNs' change, and it might be nice to try & restore some of their dates first, if they'd come out looking nicer than N-a-D's "stained" results.............. Thx!

StrikeOutXXX

This one seems promising.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FSs2b7Tc-q8