A well-struck 1929-D Buffalo nickel
gyocomgd
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Very well struck for the date and mint, with super-clean surfaces and pleasing color. Any thoughts?
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One moment please, I need to see what David Lange says. I see, this coin is apparently hard to find because well struck coins are scarce. Believe me, I have been collecting Buffaloes for all of 2 weeks and know everything there is to know about them (or at least what Mr. Lange discussed in his book).
Great coin! Think about THAT!
MS66!
And no, that is NOT rub on the hip in my opinion.
nice wire rim.
very nice strike and hair detail. I bet that bone above the hip must have been poking through the 2X2 plastic.
very nice colour scheme on that one also. I like those!! Nice pull Guy!
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and anything Franklin.
This board and your contributions are making a tough task much easier. jws
I'd think it would only get MS65 though. Looks like a few small rim dings and maybe a chunk missing out of the 9?
<< <i>Great Strike and very eye appealing. I like it a lot.
I'd think it would only get MS65 though. Looks like a few small rim dings and maybe a chunk missing out of the 9? >>
I go along with that. These are the very type of things that preclude an MS66 grade.
The bottom line, however, is that I wouldn't be surprised if this came back AU58. There are small breaks of luster on the hip, below the Indian's temple where the hair joins the cheek, and on high on the bison's foreleg. More and more, people are pointing out that the metal on these coins is so hard, that "cabinet friction" doesn't really exist. I wonder about that.
More worrisome to me is that I've never heard of an AU58 that "market-grades" MS65! This coin is just so sharp, and so hard to come by with strike, color and luster like this, that it would be a shame if it rated considerably lower than many "ordinary" MS64 examples. I probably will submit it and see what happens....
"More and more, people are pointing out that the metal on these coins is so hard, that "cabinet friction" doesn't really exist. I wonder about that.["
Horsepucky. A coin stored in a drawer, and envelope, or in an oversized flip can silde around like mad, only to break the luster. All of these would be regarded as "cabinet friction." Since our "nickels" are 75% copper, and since the flow lines on the surface of business strikes compose only a thin metallic layer, these coins are still quite subject to luster breaks from friction as described.
As for your '29-D, it is quite a rare coin. Fresh dies from Denver didn't last long in that year (or others in the teens and 20s) and it was even more rare that the coins struck up fully to include smooth fields and excellent high point definition. It would appear from the outcome of most Denver coins in the time, that the final hardening process (the dies were shipped not yet hardened as a measure of protection from theft and counterfeit use, as well as for the mm punch) was not perfected in Denver for quite some time. Thus, as the dies wore, and they did so quickly, the devices became quickly corrupt and heavy flow lines developed across the fields. Your coin is relatively immaculate in that context, and therefore rare. Who cares what grade it is.
Hoot
To provide an idea on the quality of the strike, here is my PCGS-holdered 1929-D in MS64. Compare the fullness
on the head, shoulder and mane of the buffalo, and the hair on the Indian, with the raw example I just bought.
Even the top feather is more crisp.
Oddly, LIBERTY on the PCGS MS64 is more full than on my raw piece.
One of the strike peculiarities that occured with middle die state pieces, such as your 64, is that LIBERTY struck up well. This is due to the fact that as the major devices deteriorated, metal flow into some of the minor devices improved. Therefore, it's not uncommon to see MDS buffs with crisp lettering near the rims. With time and greater wear to the die, these devices also deteriorated, often merging with the rims and creating some rather spectacular die deterioration doubling.
Hoot
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It's a 65.
Pete