The 1913-S Type 2 Buffalo Nickel - Try to find a nice one.

BuffaloIronTail

The 1913 Buffalo Nickels minted at San Francisco are really poorly made. Both Type 1 add Type 2 suffer from various problems.

The strike itself is mushy and poorly struck on the majority of coins. The Type 1 was struck better than Type 2, but still exhibits weakness in different areas, including peripheral elements and less than stellar strikes on the reverse.

Type 1 and Type 2 coins are plagued by clashes, as a matter of fact, San Francisco had major problems adjusting to the higher relief of the coins.

Seems like there are more clashed coins in 1913 than in any other year. I believe that San Francisco had feeder problems, because of the higher relief, and the employee responsible for maintaining the feeder mechanism was absent for a good portion of the mintage. It was not unusual to have employees leave their primary assignments to assist in other duties.

1913 Type 2 Nickels are a real mess, and this problem is amplified by the premature wearing of the date that was very common on all coins through 1915, making the coin extremely hard to find due to the small 1.2 million mintage.

Uneven strikes, along with premature die wear and clash marks make finding a decent looking coin a real challenge. Of course there are some early die states that are really struck well, but this pales in comparison to other date in the series.

It's just a real tough coin to find that will look good in your collection.

Just my 2 Cents opinion from years of collecting this series.

Pete

ernie11

Pete, I am thankful for your expertise here, as this is not an area in which I've studied. I have a 13-S Type 2, which is shown here, and would like your opinion of where this falls in the spectrum of S strikes. PCGS graded this AU-58. Thank you.

erwindoc

Here is my 1913 S type 2 example. I think it is pretty nice.

erwindoc

Here is my type 1 1913 S. Again, I think it is pretty nice. May not quite have the toning of the T2 though.

BuffaloIronTail

@ernie11

Your 13-S T2 is one of the nicer ones, which don't come around that often. Although it isn't fully struck, it's very close. They can be found. It just takes a little more digging.

Nice fully struck top feather too, and no clash.

Pete

BuffaloIronTail

@erwindoc said:
Here is my type 1 1913 S. Again, I think it is pretty nice. May not quite have the toning of the T2 though.

You did well on both coins. Nice toning, too.

Pete

mr1931S

my '13-S type2. PCGS VF30

124Spider

NGC AU58; I'm reasonably pleased with it. A bit of flatness toward the bottom of the hair, but I've seen a lot worse in this series.

BuffaloIronTail

@mr1931S said:

my '13-S type2. PCGS VF30

Nice coin. There's a lot of meat on it.

Notice how the date is already showing signs of weakness and wear at VF-30.

Pete

BuffaloIronTail

@124Spider said:
NGC AU58; I'm reasonably pleased with it. A bit of flatness toward the bottom of the hair, but I've seen a lot worse in this series.

Agreed, Strike is decent, and the coin shows the clash pretty plainly. There was a whole lot of work done in the chin and neck area to try and abrade away the clash evidence.

Pete

jom

Here's a recent purchase. It's been a long time since I ventured into Buffalo Land....

jom

1Bufffan

No connection to them, but yesterday at the Baltimore show J.J. Teaparty had a Great selection of Buffs on display. a lot of 13 - s type 2 were included.

mr1931S

@BuffaloIronTail said:

@mr1931S said:

my '13-S type2. PCGS VF30

Nice coin. There's a lot of meat on it.

Notice how the date is already showing signs of weakness and wear at VF-30.

Pete

Never have thought about it that way.You're right. Awhile back, the consensus on this board was that my '13-S T2 is not an XF40 (tip of horn worn off) but a VF 30 or VF 35.