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Buffalo Nickel collectors question
Vetter
Posts: 790 ✭✭✭✭✭
For those that collect Full Horn Buffalos. What was the hardest year/mintmark to find with a nice full horn and good strike? And are you still looking for it?
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Silverman68, jfoot13, GAB, ricman, Smittys, scrapman1077, RyGuy, Connecticoin, Meltdown, VikingDude, Peaceman, Patches and more.
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Most of my experience is in coins with the horn long gone but I believe the '26-S is at least among the hardest. There are other dates more poorly made but there were some nice coins. A lot of the '26-S didn't have a full horn right off the dies.
Slightly off topic, but I have always thought full horn criteria was easier to find then the full steps Jefferson's... JMO... Cheers, Ricko
You should pick up a copy of "Buffalo Nickels an in Depth Study of the Strike" by our very own @koynekwest. It's a nice reference to use for which ones are difficult to find with good or full strike.
I am building a date set and I am still looking for a 1924, not necessarily for lack of full horn, I just haven't found one that had a strike that I liked.
Collector, occasional seller
Good luck with 1924-D. The top feather and the horn on back are usually always mushy.
Same for 1924-S, but believe it or not, the strike is usually better.
1926-D has the same "feather" problem, with the horn just fading into nothingness.
Pete
This is such a prevalent problem with Buffs I don't know if there's a single date that could be considered the worst. And the culprit is just as often, and maybe more so, the result of badly worn dies as it is from an actual deficiency of the strike. As far as just an overall lack of strike the 1918-S has the highest number, percentage wise, of any other date in the series (53% weak) and the obverse is often the reason for this. When both strike plus worn dies are considered it's probably the '26-D (55% weak). There is a total of 17 dates/Mints that I have not seen with a full strike. The 24-D almost always weakly struck at the tip of the uppermost feather and the corresponding area just as Pete says.