1918 S Buffalo--a scary coin-results in

Kaelasdad

I asked my daughter if she wanted to see a scary coin. This coin is a scary coin. Its raw. It has been in a dansco for many many years. Its brethren are also toned gorgeous coins. I dont have my good macro camera, it died on a recent trip--water and electronics...my new camera just wont do a nice macro. This was from my phone. I can tell you the strike is strong, the horn is full, the luster is booming, and the pictures dont even come close to the rainbow toning on both sides of the coin.

I say this is a scary coin because will PCGS agree it is NT? Prices on these go super high....and I have compared it to the pics PCGS has on Coinfacts--and even my daughter, who doesnt know or care anything about coins, said, this coin beats them to a pulp. I know the pics are blurry, is this a scary coin?



I sent in 10 coins from the album, most were toned somewhat similar to the 1918 S although the 18 S is the most visually stunning--out of the 10, 4 graded, 6 came back..........cleaned.
I have looked like crazy at these and I see no hairlines at all, maybe the plastic sheet of the Dansco rubbed the coins on the high points...I have no real idea.
But, NONE were deemed AT. And these were all sniffed.
For all of the guys who lined up to give AT opinions, I hope you realize that some coins actually tone naturally. They really do.

DIMEMAN

Can't tell much from these pics.

It's always scary sending a nice beautifully toned coin to PCGS!

Pokermandude

AT in my opinion. No elevation chromatics. Seems to "float" on the surface.

AUandAG

<< <i>AT in my opinion. No elevation chromatics. Seems to "float" on the surface. >>

LanceNewmanOCC

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sad to see someone do that to such a wonderful coin
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Kaelasdad

The coin ships to PCGS tomorrow for Secure Plus, I guess the sniffer can give it a shot, along with 9 of his brethren from the same album, all gorgeous toned coins.

Thats the scary thing, no one seems to know how to tell the difference anymore on AT vs NT, but the easiest answer is always AT. I can say this was from a very old Dansco, from a collection that hasnt seen the light of day since 1996--and the first and easiest answer will still be AT.

coinguy1989

AT

Type2

It will be fine looks good to me. Nice coin

Kaelasdad

A big thanks to the gentleman who mentioned elevation chromatics--I had to look it up to find examples, and understand the concept...All I can say is I will sleep easier tonight before they ship off....they might not show in the picture but the height differences definitely show on the coin in hand

BigDowgie

Send it in! Great looking coin! Let us know how it went.

LanceNewmanOCC

<< <i>The coin ships to PCGS tomorrow for Secure Plus, I guess the sniffer can give it a shot, along with 9 of his brethren from the same album, all gorgeous toned coins.

i for one am very much looking forward to seeing how the sniffer handles this (these)

thanks for sharing
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Type2

Looks kinda like this one.

rhedden

I have a different thought. It appears to have AU53 to 55 surfaces, and was probably dipped long ago to be sold as "BU." It looks to have retoned naturally in the album. I don't know if PCGS will grade it, but I don't think it will grade fully MS.

ricko

Worth a shot at grading..but do not be surprised either way....I will not make a judgement AT/NT from those pictures, but if the other coins in the album are similar, it could grade. Cheers, RickO

Shortgapbob

<< <i>I have a different thought. It appears to have AU53 to 55 surfaces, and was probably dipped long ago to be sold as "BU." It looks to have retoned naturally in the album. I don't know if PCGS will grade it, but I don't think it will grade fully MS. >>



I agree. Looks like secondary toning on a coins that was dipped/chemically cleaned in the past.

TomB

I also think it looks like an AU with secondary toning. Is it market (TPG) acceptable? I don't know.

CoinRaritiesOnline

I'm sorry to say that I think it is very unlikely to grade.

johnny9434

nice looking coin from what i can tell on the coin. i dont like the at thou. jmo

acloco

Pics are too blurry to give a good guess.

It would be fun to send to the host, an entire book (full or partial) of Buffs in for grading.

Back your cell phone up a bit and snap a couple more pics please.

Kove

High points on the reverse, including the hip, tip of tail, and horn look dull like the luster has been rubbed off. It looks upper AU to me. I'm unsure if it will straight-grade, but I hope for the best.

Shamika

Obverse could be MS, but based on the reverse hip I'd grade the coin AU55.

keets

it's hard enough to accurately grade from pictures, when those pictures are tilted and out of focus it's difficult-er by degree. i find it peculiar that so many see a blurry picture of a toned coin and think they can tell that it's AU, but that's just me.

my assessment is simple: the colors are typical for Nickel.

Greeniejr

Worst case scenario they bag it and you send it to Florida. If they bag it then you dip it and send it back to PCGS.

Kaelasdad

The guys who said AU were dead on, according to PCGS, the guys who said might be an old cleaning, might have been even more right, I cant see any hairlines in the fields, perhaps some marks from the plastic of the Dansco contributed, i have no idea how many times these coins were viewed by their previous owner. But, stunning colors.

LanceNewmanOCC

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appreciate the follow-up.

surprised you didn't get trueview

i'm not saying your coins have hairlines, especially from those images, but i will say i've seen major cleaning lines and i've seen micro-thin hairlines nearly imperceptible to the human eye.

all-in-all, thanks for sharing and it was a fun ride
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