1913 Type 2 Buffalo 5c - No F, Missing designer initial - For the Variety people
Manorcourtman
Posts: 8,046 ✭✭✭✭✭
My passion is Buffalo nickel varieties. I have been after Buffalo varieties for over 20 years now. Many of the years in the series were struck using severely abraded dies that led to many different varieties. From the popular 2 Feather varieties to Missing designer initials to 3 and 3 1/2 Leg varieties to name just a few. I recently acquired a Type 2, 1913 Buff with a missing designer initial. In Ron Pope's book he mentioned this date in the section titled "Partial" missing designer initial as he had not seen this date with an entirely effaced initial. My coin is as close to a totally missing "F" that I have ever seen. It's a very scarce to rare date to find without the designer initial in my years of searching. My coin was struck with a severely abraded die which is evident in numerous areas on the obverse. The die probably was replaced soon after it struck the coin. Here it is with close-ups at the bottom.
Comments
It’s cool looking 😎
Mr_Spud
Grease filled? I did not see a variety for date and type other than ddo or ddr.
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It was a severely abraded die, from the Mint workers trying to extend the die life. You see this on several years. The only one recognized by the Cherrypickers guide is 1916. But many other years exist w/o the initial.
Here's a 1917 that I have:
Great coin. As a collector of Buffalo errors and varieties too, I can appreciate the time it took to find it. Well done! Are you going to have it authenticated?
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Thank you. I have no plans for it. It's just part of my collection! Very few people collect these anyway despite the rarity!
I collect them too.
1920
1924
1919
1913 S Ty 1
I have a 1924 no F variety. The real deal.
Surprisingly I have no NO F varieties in my Buffalo variety/error collection. Just another avenue to look into.
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How common are these varieties found on date worn pieces?
Nice!
Congrats on the find. I didn’t even know such a beast existed.
Ron Pope, book on abraided die buffalos lists about a dozen date/mm no 2Fs. They are pretty scarce. Sometimes they appear in combination with a 2f but mostly not. I have the 16-s and 24p in my variety albums. At one point I had a 16-p that was both a 2f and a No F, and I had it attributed as the 2f since that fit into a registry. Financially speaking, it would have made more sense to have it graded as a No F.
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The No F buffaloes should absolutely get it's place in CPG in several more dates than just 1916. Somehow this variety isn't appreciated enough by those in charge of CPG. Like Manourcourtman said, this is not greased die but die abrasion, same as 3 legged, 3HL, 2F some of which carry huge premium in higher grades, why not at least to let this real No F coins to make it to FS-40X family? Lets share nice examples like John did shoing also this amazing 13S T1 2F No F.
After finding MS65 1916P unattributed No F I got more interested in No F buffaloes and this is my new addition
Hard to believe that these are so highly sought after
@RobertScotLover do you mean No F variety? No it’s not highly sought after at all, this post and comments actually says that this is a minor variety as very people do collect them.
There is very little info available at this time on the No F Buffs. Ron Pope’s book is about the only place to find any info on them. There is a sort of a cult following of them! Not many people know about them thus they are not widely collected. But that’s the way I like! Some dates are quite rare and can be Cherry-picked still. I remember when 2 Feather Buffs were relatively unknown and could be found readily in the wild. Those days are long gone. Maybe some days the No F Buffs will see the spotlight among variety collectors. I collect them because it is a challenge and very affordable at this point.