I need your opinions on the damage cause to this 1935 S Buffalo Nickel, please.

jesbroken

I store all of my raw coins in the same flips I send them to PCGS in. I'm talking of hundreds of coins. None have suffered this fate. I bought this 35S Buff about 10 years ago and it has been in a temperature and humidity monitored safe with the others. This rust, I'll call it, only occurred in the last year about. I've never seen this same damage/rust/whatever occur to any coin I own which is many, many buffalo nickels. I have a complete raw collection in a Littleton Album stored in the same safe and none have suffered this. 20 years or so ago, it seems like I saw some of the vinyl albums with this, but not for sure. I'm hoping someone here can clue me in, so as not to have it occur again. Soon as the weather clears I plan on going to the garage and trying a dip in acetone. Doubt that will help, but what can it hurt? I thought quite possibly the fingerprint on the reverse might be responsible but how did it get to the obverse. It looks like maybe moisture might be a causal factor, but why just this coin.
Thanks to all who reply.
Jim

amwldcoin

I would say it had a surface contaminant on it. If you want to be proactive there is nothing wrong with giving your coins a quick acetone bath before you put them in storage. I acetone the majority of my coins before I send them in for grading.

Edit to add....I wouldn't do this with copper. Best thing for copper is omething like a gentle bath in warm water with a little dawn dishwashing soap. I usually don't mess with copper, but have been successful removing PVC from copper this way.

Mr_Spud

It looks like there is a fingerprint on both sides. In the obverse in the Indians hair right below the part and also the more obvious one on the buffalos front leg area. But I don’t know if that has anything to do with the toning. It might be that someone long ago tried to dip the coin to remove the fingerprints and didn’t rinse the dip residue off. That can cause this color toning with a dip like EZest or whatever it’s called

BryceM

Well, it's not rust, since there isn't any iron in the composition of a nickel.

How does it get a fingerprint on the obverse?

Well, one is probably a thumbprint and one is probably a print from an index finger. Acetone will remove the oils, but not the established toning.

abcde12345

Other than the soft strike I rather like this one. It offers grit and personality.
I can't imagine any collector who would not find this Buffalo nickels series simply whimsical and attractive.

leothelyon

Probably that new hair cream you started using a year or two ago.

Leo

LanceNewmanOCC

@jesbroken said:

This rust, I'll call it, only occurred in the last year about.

i don't have anything useful to add based on all you've said other than to say that apparently coins in safes that have previously been, uh, safe, are apparently not exempt from 2020 either. ><

nice 35-s

jesbroken

Yes, 2020 was something else. Look what it did to this 35, oops better not. For PM only.
Jim

koynekwest

Looks like attractive deep gold toning to me.

jesbroken

You can't hardly see it inhand with just your eye, but not the most attractive toning to me, maybe a few years down the road I'll change my mind.
Thanks,
Jim

ricko

I would guess it may be the result of dip residue not neutralized. It can take a long time for it to manifest (or a short time, depending on the chemical), and it may have been developing slowly for a couple of years, until now it is very obvious. How often have you looked at that coin? Obviously, it is something unique to that coin, since others have not been affected. Cheers, RickO

jesbroken

@ricko said:
I would guess it may be the result of dip residue not neutralized. It can take a long time for it to manifest (or a short time, depending on the chemical), and it may have been developing slowly for a couple of years, until now it is very obvious. How often have you looked at that coin? Obviously, it is something unique to that coin, since others have not been affected. Cheers, RickO

I had this coin out comparing it to the like coin in my Littleton album in the summer of 2018 and saw no signs of this toning/turning/corrosion at that time, although I did not photograph it, so possibly starting then and not noticeable by the eye alone, as it is hardly noticeable by eye alone now.
The dip residue tends to be the most reasonable cause, as I have owned coins for many years that turned in holders in the later years that had no signs at all upon purchase.
Thanks to all who replied.
Jim

skier07

I recently experimented with a few Buffalo nickels out of curiosity which had a similar color to yours. Acetone for the most part did very little but MS70 was very effective. I was playing with low grade low value common dates.

jesbroken

Tried acetone and MS70 with no noticeable change.
Jim

relicsncoins

Looks like a latent finger print to me. I always give my coins a soak in acetone before I send them in. Just never know how the coin was handled in the past. Plus, a lot of my Photo Cert coins come in original PVC flips.

vplite99

Some collectors would pay up for that damage.