"My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko.
With such a huge price jump from 67 to 68, combined with some of AD's collection having CAC beans and some not having CAC beans, combined with some concerns over super toners in new slabs, I'm a bit surprised by the current price.
But not too surprised. Looks like an eye popper for sure.
Way too common a coin to fetch that kind of money. Results like these just make average collectors with uncertified coins send them in to get encapsulated, potentially diluting the market. Then again, show me the difference between this coin in MS 67 and then in MS 68. I'd bet it comes down to "interpretation".
If you do what you always did, you get what you always got.
I'm still at the wow stage. I know it's a great grade but 11000 for a coin that is so common just boggles my mind but I guess it's worth what someone is willing to pay for it and people are willing to pay big money
The time has come for me to send in my '38-D/S FS-513 MS 65+ for significant upgrade. Mine has a much sharper strike than the Legend piece which,from the images,looks unusually soft in strike to me.
Where is that i'm-a-shakin'-my-head in disbelief emoticon when I need it?
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
Golly, I think if the truly rare coins one could buy with this, and imagine this enormous pile of 1938-D buffalo nickels, and this on sitting on the very top, versus an old coin in the middle of a much smaller stack of, well, just about any pre-1808 issue, as for that amount of money one could get a very decent flowing hair or draped bust copper or silver coin, or even a gold coin.
Check out this Walker uber-toner from same auction that is now at $2000....normally a common $110-150 coin. Very rare with color like this but quite a premium, too.
Ah, well...when I comes right down to it, it's all "Collect what you like".
While it isn't something I would spend $10,000 or more on, there's no reason for me to second guess them. By the same logic, I don't need someone trying to tell me that I'm wasting my time on $300 coins.
I don't quite understand why prices on these haven't crashed like so many other top grade (or once top grade) coins from this era. The pop has been increasing. Will it crash once ms68+'s start getting graded?
Eventually, enough 68's will be made that it has to lower the prices of your average MS68. In the case of this coin, it's a MS68 color coin so there me only be one like it. Among a grouping of MS68's this one should always stick out like a sore thumb because of the color.
I'm with the insane group. First there probably isn't a coin more common than a 38-D Buffalo. Second If you took 10 67's out and this 68 out and put them on a table do you really think you could pick out the 68?
The Buffalo nickels in tonight's Legend Auction are really exquisite and represent many years of cherry-picking the finest and most beautiful coins Andy and Allyne could find -- and they had an opportunity to see the best on the market for years. I would be surprised if many of these coins DON'T go for moon money.
Ironically, as I was browsing the lots this morning I still saw a handful of coins at very reasonable levels. The 1924-S, for example, is a real sleeper date in gem.
-John
John Feigenbaum Whitman Brands: President/CEO (www.greysheet.com; www.whitman.com) PNG: Executive Director (www.pngdealers.org)
It's a great example of preservation, and without a doubt rare with that look, but you wouldn't catch me paying that much for it.
Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
Not me pal ... it's pretty but I would much rather prefer the money. I have a pretty 67 that cost me waaaay less. I guess some folks have more dollars than sense.
The bitterness of "Poor Quality" is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
This coin was saved by the millions. It rarely circulated. Nearly forty years ago, I remember a coin dealer having rolls of what would now be supergrade coins of this date selling them for $1 each.
Starting around 2002 or 2003, some coins with attractive color received a 1 point grade bump. I bought one of these in a PC 6 OGH with fantastic color, resubmitted it, and got it into a PC 7 holder. Like the coin being discussed, it had a small tick mark in the buff's midsection.
In PC 7, this is a $200 coin, $300 if it has nice color. Finding these in MS 67 with attractive color is not difficult.
Coins in PC 7 + holders the last time I checked have brought $1,100 to $1,200 at auction. I have looked at some of these coins and they had some obverse tic marks, while my coin has a clean obverse. Based on my observations, I cannot understand why these coins I viewed sold at such a premium to on in a PC 7 holder.
You have to ask yourself what is the difference in a 38 D Buff between an MS 67, MS 67 +, and an MS 68? Can you see the consistency in the grading of these coins? If the answers to these two questions, is 'yes,' you then have to ask yourself whether each grade increment is worth the incremental price being asked. If the answer to either or both of these two questions is 'no,' run away from the coin as fast as possible.
"Vou invadir o Nordeste, "Seu cabra da peste, "Sou Mangueira......."
@AllCoinsRule said:
I don't quite understand why prices on these haven't crashed like so many other top grade (or once top grade) coins from this era. The pop has been increasing. Will it crash once ms68+'s start getting graded?
For a top 20th century REG type set where you want to maximize the points, you need one of these in MS68. That's what the driver is. Considering 60,000 of the 1938-D have been PCGS graded/sumbitted, only 21 MS68's isn't exactly a lot of coins for "type." It is probably more than enough for all the top Buffalo registry sets by date/mm.
For a comparison. In June 1989, the PCGS pop reports show 18 of the 1938-d in MS67, the highest grades achieved out of approx 11,500 coins graded for that date. That's still a small amount. At that time they sold for approx $2,000 each. So it is a bit surprising to me that today with a similar pop a 18 MS68's, that the price is 5X to 6X higher. Maybe that can be attributed to the 5X increase in total coins submitted over the last 27 yrs? Though, I'd suspect you could cut that in half or by a third for resubmissions. Today there are 1749 PCGS MS67 1938-d Buffs....quite a jump from 18 in June 1989 (there were approx 2200 MS66's back in 1989). What hasn't changed is that there are still 18-21 total specimens in the highest grade for either era. Today's MS68 probably isn't all that much different looking from 1989's MS67.
In 1989 an MS67 Buff was a super-grade coin and nearly impossible to make (18/11,500). Today MS68 is the super-grade with a hit rate of 21/60,000. Not great odds. My newest pop report is from Jan 2007, there were 6 MS68's by that time out of 43,300 coins. So the MS68 pop has tripled with only a 40% increase in submissions. From Oct 1998 - July 2001 there were still only 2. So MS68 pops are approximately tripling every 6-9 years since 2001.
I'm more than sure the buyer fell in love with the eye appeal. I for one am not at all surprised it's selling for so much. But, I would much rather have a 13 type 1 68 than a 38-d 68. I must admit, it's GORGEOUS and Andy at "Angel Dee's" doesn't play around with buffalo nickel's that are NOT gorgeous. He's DA MAN when it comes to Buffs in case you don't know this. He's the KING in my book. Andy is a friend of mine and has mentored me in buffalo nickel's. I have the greatest respect for Andy.
A very good man.
The bitterness of "Poor Quality" is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.
Heritage is my pr0n.. Great coin, but wow, the original illustration art, dinosaur fossils and the like you can get from Heritage would make spending that kind of money on a common date buff tough.
"I'll split the atom! I am the fifth dimension! I am the eighth wonder of the world!" -Gef the talking mongoose.
@PTVETTER said:
I know that coin
Say what you will, but find another one with that color and strike. PCGC secure graded to boot
Unless I'm missing something, the strike seems below average to me on the Buffalo's shoulder hair, front head, tail, etc. The obverse I'm less sure about. But it looks ok to me. I never realized you could achieve much more than a 65/66 grade with obvious strike weaknesses. PCGS's own photograde show better reverse strikes on all of the 65-68 coins pictured.
@tradedollarnut said:
Eh. I'd never do a Morgan set....unless it was done like Sunnyood. Those focused on the grade are missing the forest for the trees....
I tend to agree with this. The overwhelming majority of us (myself included) are on a budget and think 11K for a 38-D buff nickel is crazy, and would opt for a 67 or even 67+ at a fraction of the price and would be perfectly happy with our purchase, but I'm guessing (pure conjecture, haven't seen the coin in person), this coin is absolutely phenomenal and that the buyer really isn't constrained by budget and the question became, regardless of price, what other 38-D buff nickel available would I rather have than this one.
The premium associated with this has little to do with strike, grade nor rarity. Plenty will pay up for coins with eye appeal of this magnitude.
mark
Walker Proof Digital Album Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
@PTVETTER said:
I know that coin
Say what you will, but find another one with that color and strike. PCGC secure graded to boot
Unless I'm missing something, the strike seems below average to me on the Buffalo's shoulder hair, front head, tail, etc. The obverse I'm less sure about. But it looks ok to me. I never realized you could achieve much more than a 65/66 grade with obvious strike weaknesses. PCGS's own photograde show better reverse strikes on all of the 65-68 coins pictured.
I would rather have a monster ms67. I have an ICG ms67 which looks for the world like a 68 and is fully proof
like to boot. But if you got money to burn I guess this is the way to go.
Collector of Buffalo Nickels and other 20th century United States Coinage a.k.a "The BUFFINATOR"
I used to be somebody, now I'm just a coin collector. Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
the price paid for these vs. the price paid one grade lower should be assailed as heartily as everyone is willing to mock the same Modern coin phenomenon.
I've actually seen this coin in person and it is all that in hand. The price is way out of my range, but that's just me. Andy and Alynne do have a great eye for nickels, their war nickel sets are nothing short of amazing. If they ever auction those, expect them to go for moon money too.
I actually thought this coin went as expected price wise. Not being stickered cost it a bid or two
mark
Walker Proof Digital Album Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
EagleEye
Posts: 7,676 ✭✭✭✭✭
Comments
Wow
HAPPY COLLECTING
Would like to see that one in person!
With such a huge price jump from 67 to 68, combined with some of AD's collection having CAC beans and some not having CAC beans, combined with some concerns over super toners in new slabs, I'm a bit surprised by the current price.
But not too surprised. Looks like an eye popper for sure.
To each their own, but I hear in my mind:
"Danger, danger Will Robinson!"
siliconvalleycoins.com
Amen to that
My War Nickels https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/nickels/jefferson-nickels-specialty-sets/jefferson-nickels-fs-basic-war-set-circulation-strikes-1942-1945/publishedset/94452
To ea h their own but that price seems crazy for an uber common coin regardless of the condition
Latin American Collection
I have an MS-66 I'll let go of for half of that. Please PM....Call....Please...Operator standing by....Hello?!?
Then again....PCGS price guide is $12750, and CoinFacts shows 4 PCGS MS-68 going for $11000 or more at auction. Appears to be the price of admission.
"This highly attractive superb gem should bring a substantial premium when the advanced collectors go after it."
It certainly is in an amazing state of preservation....Cheers, RickO
The premiums paid for common coins in exceptionally high grades are (fill in the blank).
Way too common a coin to fetch that kind of money. Results like these just make average collectors with uncertified coins send them in to get encapsulated, potentially diluting the market. Then again, show me the difference between this coin in MS 67 and then in MS 68. I'd bet it comes down to "interpretation".
I'm still at the wow stage. I know it's a great grade but 11000 for a coin that is so common just boggles my mind but I guess it's worth what someone is willing to pay for it and people are willing to pay big money
HAPPY COLLECTING
Insane.
The time has come for me to send in my '38-D/S FS-513 MS 65+ for significant upgrade. Mine has a much sharper strike than the Legend piece which,from the images,looks unusually soft in strike to me.
Where is that i'm-a-shakin'-my-head in disbelief emoticon when I need it?
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
Right - it's fetching that price because of the strike.
Golly, I think if the truly rare coins one could buy with this, and imagine this enormous pile of 1938-D buffalo nickels, and this on sitting on the very top, versus an old coin in the middle of a much smaller stack of, well, just about any pre-1808 issue, as for that amount of money one could get a very decent flowing hair or draped bust copper or silver coin, or even a gold coin.
Nice nickel though!
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
I know someone with 1 1/2 rolls might need to place 60 in a Wayte Raymond album store them in the attic during the summer.
Check out this Walker uber-toner from same auction that is now at $2000....normally a common $110-150 coin. Very rare with color like this but quite a premium, too.
legendauctions.hibid.com/lot/28550130/50c-1941-pcgs-ms66-cac/?cpage=7&ref=catalog
I would have to see coins, such as these, in hand before purchasing.
“I may not believe in myself but I believe in what I’m doing” ~Jimmy Page~
My Full Walker Registry Set (1916-1947)
https://www.ngccoin.com/registry/competitive-sets/16292/
Ah, well...when I comes right down to it, it's all "Collect what you like".
While it isn't something I would spend $10,000 or more on, there's no reason for me to second guess them. By the same logic, I don't need someone trying to tell me that I'm wasting my time on $300 coins.
To each his own.
Madness!
Eventually, enough 68's will be made that it has to lower the prices of your average MS68. In the case of this coin, it's a MS68 color coin so there me only be one like it. Among a grouping of MS68's this one should always stick out like a sore thumb because of the color.
A Fool and their money.. I'll go buy some original rolls instead.
I'm with the insane group. First there probably isn't a coin more common than a 38-D Buffalo. Second If you took 10 67's out and this 68 out and put them on a table do you really think you could pick out the 68?
The Buffalo nickels in tonight's Legend Auction are really exquisite and represent many years of cherry-picking the finest and most beautiful coins Andy and Allyne could find -- and they had an opportunity to see the best on the market for years. I would be surprised if many of these coins DON'T go for moon money.
Ironically, as I was browsing the lots this morning I still saw a handful of coins at very reasonable levels. The 1924-S, for example, is a real sleeper date in gem.
-John
Whitman Brands: President/CEO (www.greysheet.com; www.whitman.com)
PNG: Executive Director (www.pngdealers.org)
It's a great example of preservation, and without a doubt rare with that look, but you wouldn't catch me paying that much for it.
Decent looking coin. I couldn't care less what someone else pays for it. Wait, what? NO "JOHN" eh, pass.
Not me pal
... it's pretty but I would much rather prefer the money. I have a pretty 67 that cost me waaaay less. I guess some folks have more dollars than sense.
nuts
This coin was saved by the millions. It rarely circulated. Nearly forty years ago, I remember a coin dealer having rolls of what would now be supergrade coins of this date selling them for $1 each.
Starting around 2002 or 2003, some coins with attractive color received a 1 point grade bump. I bought one of these in a PC 6 OGH with fantastic color, resubmitted it, and got it into a PC 7 holder. Like the coin being discussed, it had a small tick mark in the buff's midsection.
In PC 7, this is a $200 coin, $300 if it has nice color. Finding these in MS 67 with attractive color is not difficult.
Coins in PC 7 + holders the last time I checked have brought $1,100 to $1,200 at auction. I have looked at some of these coins and they had some obverse tic marks, while my coin has a clean obverse. Based on my observations, I cannot understand why these coins I viewed sold at such a premium to on in a PC 7 holder.
You have to ask yourself what is the difference in a 38 D Buff between an MS 67, MS 67 +, and an MS 68? Can you see the consistency in the grading of these coins? If the answers to these two questions, is 'yes,' you then have to ask yourself whether each grade increment is worth the incremental price being asked. If the answer to either or both of these two questions is 'no,' run away from the coin as fast as possible.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
For a top 20th century REG type set where you want to maximize the points, you need one of these in MS68. That's what the driver is. Considering 60,000 of the 1938-D have been PCGS graded/sumbitted, only 21 MS68's isn't exactly a lot of coins for "type." It is probably more than enough for all the top Buffalo registry sets by date/mm.
For a comparison. In June 1989, the PCGS pop reports show 18 of the 1938-d in MS67, the highest grades achieved out of approx 11,500 coins graded for that date. That's still a small amount. At that time they sold for approx $2,000 each. So it is a bit surprising to me that today with a similar pop a 18 MS68's, that the price is 5X to 6X higher. Maybe that can be attributed to the 5X increase in total coins submitted over the last 27 yrs? Though, I'd suspect you could cut that in half or by a third for resubmissions. Today there are 1749 PCGS MS67 1938-d Buffs....quite a jump from 18 in June 1989 (there were approx 2200 MS66's back in 1989). What hasn't changed is that there are still 18-21 total specimens in the highest grade for either era. Today's MS68 probably isn't all that much different looking from 1989's MS67.
In 1989 an MS67 Buff was a super-grade coin and nearly impossible to make (18/11,500). Today MS68 is the super-grade with a hit rate of 21/60,000. Not great odds. My newest pop report is from Jan 2007, there were 6 MS68's by that time out of 43,300 coins. So the MS68 pop has tripled with only a 40% increase in submissions. From Oct 1998 - July 2001 there were still only 2. So MS68 pops are approximately tripling every 6-9 years since 2001.
Eh. I'd never do a Morgan set....unless it was done like Sunnyood. Those focused on the grade are missing the forest for the trees....
That is a beauty...that's about all I have to say about that.
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And I hear people that spend $800 for a half oz first spouse gold coin with sub 2k mintages are fools?
I'm more than sure the buyer fell in love with the eye appeal. I for one am not at all surprised it's selling for so much. But, I would much rather have a 13 type 1 68 than a 38-d 68. I must admit, it's GORGEOUS and Andy at "Angel Dee's" doesn't play around with buffalo nickel's that are NOT gorgeous. He's DA MAN when it comes to Buffs in case you don't know this. He's the KING in my book. Andy is a friend of mine and has mentored me in buffalo nickel's. I have the greatest respect for Andy.
A very good man.
Heritage is my pr0n..
Great coin, but wow, the original illustration art, dinosaur fossils and the like you can get from Heritage would make spending that kind of money on a common date buff tough.
I know that coin
Say what you will, but find another one with that color and strike. PCGC secure graded to boot
It probably is worth what someone will pay for it. But I would never pay that kind of money for a super common coin.
Unless I'm missing something, the strike seems below average to me on the Buffalo's shoulder hair, front head, tail, etc. The obverse I'm less sure about. But it looks ok to me. I never realized you could achieve much more than a 65/66 grade with obvious strike weaknesses. PCGS's own photograde show better reverse strikes on all of the 65-68 coins pictured.
pcgs.com/photograde/
I tend to agree with this. The overwhelming majority of us (myself included) are on a budget and think 11K for a 38-D buff nickel is crazy, and would opt for a 67 or even 67+ at a fraction of the price and would be perfectly happy with our purchase, but I'm guessing (pure conjecture, haven't seen the coin in person), this coin is absolutely phenomenal and that the buyer really isn't constrained by budget and the question became, regardless of price, what other 38-D buff nickel available would I rather have than this one.
The premium associated with this has little to do with strike, grade nor rarity. Plenty will pay up for coins with eye appeal of this magnitude.
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
+1--the braid & feathers are not so strong either. This makes eye appeal less than fantastic IMHO, regardless of color.
I would rather have a monster ms67. I have an ICG ms67 which looks for the world like a 68 and is fully proof
like to boot. But if you got money to burn I guess this is the way to go.
a.k.a "The BUFFINATOR"
Hopefully the color looks a bit better in hand as that in the picture certainly does do a lot for me - especially at 11k.
Well, just Love coins, period.
I always ask myself, what's it worth without the plastic...
Here's my 1938-D in a MS66, and it's a FS-515 D/S (PCGS POP 1), for less than 1% of the OP coin.
Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
the price paid for these vs. the price paid one grade lower should be assailed as heartily as everyone is willing to mock the same Modern coin phenomenon.
Where's the "Make offer to owner" thingy?
Your '38-D FS-515 appears to be a fully-struck,lustrous original, UtahCoin. Very nice cherry-pick. Less than $100? Fantastic.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
I've actually seen this coin in person and it is all that in hand. The price is way out of my range, but that's just me. Andy and Alynne do have a great eye for nickels, their war nickel sets are nothing short of amazing. If they ever auction those, expect them to go for moon money too.
10-4,
My Instagram picturesErik
My registry sets
I actually thought this coin went as expected price wise. Not being stickered cost it a bid or two
mark
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......