Buffalo Nickel Collectors - A must have book!
ecichlid
Posts: 1,212 ✭✭✭
If your looking for an good book for yourself or a fellow buffalo nickel collector, I highly recommend Buffalo Nickels, The Abraded Die Varieties by Ron Pope. I just got the 2007 edition. I'm sure many of you have seen it, but it's a new book to me. Do you like VAMS? How about VAMS that you don't need magnification to see! Some of the more popular varieties discussed in detail include the 2-feather, the masked Indian, the dropping chin, the broken nose, etc. If you don't know these varieties and you have a collection of Buffs, you will enjoy this book. I found a 1919 2-feather some time ago in my small collection, this sparked my interest to see what else I had in my possession.
I have seen coins on Ebay cherry picked because the seller did not know it was a variety. Ouch! A price guide for the common varieties is included as well.
The author does a great job with other aspects of the ol' Buffalo. A simple and complete strike study with an easy to read bar graph really helps the reader understand at a glance what % of coins were struck light, good or full. This is so much better than reading a date by date analysis (which is in the book as well).
A reprint of a 1913 article from The Numismatist on the "new" nickel is a fun read.
A full page blow up of both the obverse and reverse of the nickel showing the first points of wear really help the collector understand how to grade this coin. This is done better than any reference I have seen.
Although there are no color photos, the black and white photos are many and done well.
Don't get me wrong, the Buffalo Nickels, The Abraded Die Varieties should not be your first coin book. But if you have already have the Red Book, a grading book and you like the Buffalos, it will make a great read and will be an excellent resource in your library for many years to come.
I have seen coins on Ebay cherry picked because the seller did not know it was a variety. Ouch! A price guide for the common varieties is included as well.
The author does a great job with other aspects of the ol' Buffalo. A simple and complete strike study with an easy to read bar graph really helps the reader understand at a glance what % of coins were struck light, good or full. This is so much better than reading a date by date analysis (which is in the book as well).
A reprint of a 1913 article from The Numismatist on the "new" nickel is a fun read.
A full page blow up of both the obverse and reverse of the nickel showing the first points of wear really help the collector understand how to grade this coin. This is done better than any reference I have seen.
Although there are no color photos, the black and white photos are many and done well.
Don't get me wrong, the Buffalo Nickels, The Abraded Die Varieties should not be your first coin book. But if you have already have the Red Book, a grading book and you like the Buffalos, it will make a great read and will be an excellent resource in your library for many years to come.
There is no "AT" or "NT". We only have "market acceptable" or "not market acceptable.
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Comments
<< <i>The author is a poster here. Goes by the name Coinquest I believe. Very knowledgable about Buffalo Nickels. I do like the book, but the pictures are terrible on some of the coins , However some of the information is great. I like the two feathers and missing F varieties the best. The others are of not much interest too me , but to each his own. I do particulary love the date and strike analaysis and also the checklist. >>
Let me apologize for some of the photos. Many of these varieties are so infrequently seen that I had to use whatever I could get-often poor quality images off the internet. To have every variety in hand for better imaging would be an impossibility. Most of the major stuff came from my own stock and I also had lots of help those very helpful collectors mentioned in the credits. I'm always on the lookout for better images and I improve them whenever I can.
Buffalo nickel dies were subject to unusually sever abrasion during use due to the rough texture of the design. Many dies were further lapped to remove minor field damage. The subject is fascinating and Ron brings together a lot of interesting information applicable to both specific dates and to the full 1913-1938 series.
Although it is clearly a specialist book for Buffalo Nickel fans, much of the core information can be generalized and applied to other series.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
http://ProofCollection.Net
http://www.richuhrichcoins.com/about.shtml
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