Is it possible today to have an overdate variety that takes a long time to catch on (buffalo nickel

Longacre

I was looking at the ANR site, and this Buffalo nickel was described as below. With today's instant communication, do you think that the discovery of an overdate variety would take so long to catch on? Are there more modern examples of delays in recognition, or are varieties generally recognized almost immediately?

1918/7-D AU-55 (NGC).
Popular 1918/7-D Overdate!
DESCRIPTION Fivaz-Stanton 016.5. Satiny light golden surfaces with hints of toning in the protected areas. One of the highly sought after varieties in the Buffalo nickel series, that rivals the 1916/1916 and the considerably more available 1937-D 3 Leg nickel in popularity. This variety was discovered by Barney Bluefield, a Syracuse (NY) dealer, in the early 1930s, but did not catch on as a widely desired variety until years later. Today, the overdate is an icon, as noted. Nice detail for the assigned grade.

cladking

Overdates are the king of varieties and would be popular almost immediately even if one were common.
Of course such an event is supposed to be impossible with modern techniques and single hubbing, but
a new one would be very popular. There are many really neat varieties which have not been discovered
or at least not yet reported. Up until the last few years there were very few people looking at new coins
before or after they got into circulation and varieties would slip through undetected. While the chances of
major new varieties going undetected now have become quite slim there are undoubtedly millions of rare
coins already in circulation. Almost all post-1964 varieties are very scarce or rare in collectors' hands. It is
extremely difficult to believe that there have been so many dies which struck one or a handful of coins and
were then removed from service. If you look in circulation you can find a surprising number of the commoner
varieties so one is led to believe the tough ones are there as well.

My own luck has been less than stellar but I've found one of the rarities and a couple of the scarce ones.

seanq

The 1914/3 Buffalo nickel varieties (P and S mint) were discovered in the late 1990s, and while they are collected today they are not pursued with the fervor of the other major Buffalo varieties (1916 DDO, 1918/17-D, and 1937-D 3-legged). Part of this is probably due to the fact that the variety is not obvious to the naked eye like the others, another is that it wound up being surprisingly common once people started looking for it.

I don't doubt that if a legitimate overdate variety were to appear on a modern issue, the resulting fervor would rival that of the 1995 Doubled Die.


Sean Reynolds

koynekwest

Most types of varieties were largely ingnored (with the exception of large cents) before the 1950's.

The reason for the abundance of the 1914/13 buff is that a working hub was the point at which the overdate was created-at least six working dies were affected-some with a pretty weak underdigit, tho.

slumlord98

In bust half circles, the 1817/4 wasn't "discovered" til 1930, and wasn't popular even among Bustnuts til the 70s. It has reached a wider audience even more recently. Also, 1812/1, large 8, another charismatic rarity, was overlooked in a Stack's auction in the 40s and didn't receive recognition until much later. Look how long even mintmarks were ignored.

BuffaloIronTail

Back in the "old days", collectors didn't collect variety or error coins with the fervor we do today.

Coin collecting itself, didn't become a popular Hobby with the masses until the mid-1930's.

Another example is the 1922 NO-D Cent. Collectors during the late 1920's recognized it, but the only thing they did was to document finding them, and then questioning the Mint's veracity as to the fact that none were minted in Philadelphia that year.

Certain coins caught on, and after the general public started filling up coin books, they learned of these 'oddities", and the short supply and rarity of some of them drove the prices up.

I have absolutly no doubt that if a 21st century overdate appeared, with the way that quality control at the Mint has gotten better in stopping errors like those, the coin would be instantly worth several thousands of dollars!

Pete

airplanenut

We see it here with new VAMs... at least it's easy to find out if it's a discovery piece. The desirability, I guess, would be a different issue based on the "look" of variety.

Speaking of the 1918/7-D, this one just came to me:





Quite a neat coin with a very noticeable overdate