Found in a roll of Buffalo Nickels

danglen

A few months ago I bought eight rolls of average circulated Buffalo Nickels from a guy that called me off an ad I run in a local paper called the Pennysaver. I just started going through them this morning, and I had just started looking through the first roll when this guy jumped out at me Two of the three diagnostics for a genuine 3-legger check out. The roughness on the back of the Indians neck, and the separation of the E Pluribus Unum from the back of the buffalo. The only one I can't really see is the famous, "if the leg is missing, he must be pi**ing", but maybe it has to do with the wear. Any opinions out there?




I guess it's pretty obvious I don't know how to post images to this thread

kieferscoins

All I get are red x's.

Cameron Kiefer

Petescorner

Here's a little help.

tjkillian

Now that is COOL! The only diagnostic that I see is the moth-eaten hind leg.

Congratulations on the great find!

Tom

Placid

www.cointelevision.com has a counterfiet detection video running that gives several diagnostics for those.

kranky

Great find! The pictures are a little small to verify, but it looks right to me.

mr1931S

danglen,that is a great find!...kind of reminds me of the way it used to be...*sigh*

here's some blurbs on the '37 D 3-legger from my "Detecting Altered Coins" booklet by Harshke:

1.The entire buffalo is smaller on the genuine 3-leg;this can be seen with the naked eye.
2.On the altered 1937 D,the buffalo is larger.
3.The hind legs on the genuine 3-leg are narrow and not fully rounded which gives them a motheaten or bumpy appearance.
4.The hind legs on the altered 3-leg are thick,and stocky looking.
5.The 3-leg has a series of bumps between the front and hind legs.

i never did understand why "the entire buffalo is smaller on the genuine 3-leg." Were there dies with smaller buffaloes used to produce some of the 1937 D nickels and all known-to-be-genuine 3-leggers have come from those dies with the smaller buffalo?...

a cast counterfeit is going to be overall slightly smaller than a genuine coin...so the buffalo on a cast counterfeit would be even smaller than the buffalo on a genuine coin...that,i will buy...but the most usual and easiest method of manufacture is shaving off the fourth leg...if carefully done,the coin could quite easily pass as a mint-produced 3-legger...if you really want to know once-and-for-all whether your coin is authentic send it to ANA...you get a photo certificate if they deem it to be authentic...just the fact that you found your coin in 'circulation,'so to speak,is not proof that your coin is genuine...

...and Harsche blew it on 3-leg nickels i think...my booklet is Fifth Edition...it may be that he corrected himself on 3-leg diagnostics in a later edition...

danglen

I took a course in Detecting Counterfeit and Altered US Coins at ANA Summer camp last year. It was taught by JP Martin and Bob Campbell. The only thing that really stuck from the course (meaning I don't have to go back and look at my notes) was that on a genuine 1893-S Morgan the "1" lines up on the denticles and on the 3-legged Buffalo, "if the leg is missing, he must be pi**ing". I did use the info to buy a raw 1893-S Morgan, which I sent off to ANACS and got graded as an AG-3. Sold it on eBay for $600.00, and now this. I think I'm going to start trying to remember the diagnostics for the Omega

mr1931S

i met JP at an ANA convention a few years ago...

i had bought a 1901-S dime from a dealer at the show...

JP took one look at it and said,"yup...it's real."....

koynekwest

It's good-a very nice and very UNUSUAL find-like finding a 1955 1-O-I Lincoln. I have a buddy who found one (only a good-but...) in a junk box. Now, go find a 1936-D 3 1/2 leg-shouldn't be as tough. (By the way, if you DO find a '36-d 3 1/2 leg, let me know.)

Conder101

<< <i>i never did understand why "the entire buffalo is smaller on the genuine 3-leg." >>



It's because as they ground down the field objects that were close together become seperated further as they rielf gets lower. Let me try to demenstrate.


/ /
/ /
/ /
/ / two recesses in the die that will produce two raised points on the coin that almost touch. When we grind the dies a little....


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/ /
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/ / the relief becomes lower, a flat area develops between the two points and they are each a little smaller. This is why the E Pluribus Unum gets further away from the buffalo and why the buffalo is slightly smaller.