The Premature Wear to the Buffalo Nickel Date
BuffaloIronTail
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After being in circulation the date on early Buffalo Nickels started to wear off too quickly, with the Mint taking notice of the problem. There were early attempts at trying to solve the problem by strengthening the numerals by thickening them.
All the efforts failed, and the Mint took drastic action by re-working the entire obverse in 1916. If you look at the date on 1916 coins, you'll notice that the 6 is larger than the other three numbers.
Nothing the Mint did fixed the problem, and most of the heavier circulated ones ended up with the last two numerals being the only thing left of the date.
I believe that the Mint should have did what was done in 1925 to the Standing Liberty Quarter, which was to place the date in a protective exurge.
Check out how large the last numeral (the 6) is from the other numerals:
Pete
Comments
You know, the wear on the date made for a couple key coins, rare in their own right, but with the disappearing date made them extremely hard to find.
1913-S Type 2 and 1915-S are real tough! 1914-D is also no slouch either.
Pete
Dateless Buff nickels.... many of us have a small pile of these.. Just cannot part with them. Cheers, RickO
One question. at what point in the die production was the date placed on the die? and did they place it on the Master or wait until the working die was made because for years there seems to be questions on the 1917 that looks like the date was placed upside down and then reworked to make it correct. only seems to be one set of dies. around the "7" seems to be circle of raised dots, the 9 upside down? and a line through the "9" the 7 upside down. I don't know but only heard of this, No Pictures only time will tell.
The Mint engraved the last number for the new year directly on the Master Hub. All coins for a specific year have the same date, because they all are from the same source.
For example, the Master has only the first three numbers with no last number. when a new year is engraved in it's only the last number.
A new Master is created every year with the new date having to be engraved into it.
The Die for your 1917 coin had to acquire some damage along the way, with the result showing up on the coins it minted.
Search for the phrase "How coin dies are made". It's very interesting.
That is how the Mint did it in 1917. The process is completely different nowadays.
Pete