Help with 1929-S "2 feather" Buffalo nickels
TequilaDave
Posts: 271 ✭✭✭
I was getting ready to list a roll of circ '29-S Buffalo nickels when I found what may be 3 coins that fall under the "2 feather" heading. 2 of them I'm fairly certain are indeed the 2 feather variety but the one (2nd coin) has either a hint of feather or maybe a die clash or maybe both? I see people listing coins with this hint of a feather as "2 feather" coins and then others calling them 2 1/2 feathers but not sure at what point it is a 2 feather and what point it's not.
Anyway, thanks in advance for the help. 
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Check this out.
So if I'm not mistaken, all 3 would qualify?
It looks that way. Good Luck!
Pete
Thanks, Pete. Now dumb question #2 - it seems there's not a lot of graded examples of this variety. Is that because it's fairly common and not worth of being slabbed or ?
That's an excerpt from my book on the subject. The dividing line is kind of vague between a 2 feather and a 2 1/2 and different people probably have different standards. It's very subjective and nearly impossible to quantify. For those who wish to collect these I always recommend just sticking to the "true" 2 feather dates, none of which show a noticeable remnant of the third feather and of which there are 19 different years. Yours looks like it might qualify as a 2 feather. But in that grade it would be worth maybe $25 tops so the costs associated with slabbing it wouldn't be justified. In that grade it isn't overly rare. I would say that only a couple of the rarest dates would be worth slabbing in any grade below XF or so.
@koynekwest
I think I see traces of the feather on two of them. Care to look again?
Sorry about not mentioning you, Ron. My bad.
Pete
The middle (second) one doesn't look to me like it would qualify -- too much third feather IMO.
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
Yes all three are qualifiers.
1 and # 3 are maybes. To my eye, #2 would have a hard time even being called a 2-1/2 feathers. An acetone bath may remove some of the accumulated debris behind the neck, which might make the feather fragments less noticeable. 1929-S is one of the dates for which true 2-feathers are known, so koynekwest's advice should heeded.
(no idea why this is printing out so big)
No prob, Pete.
I concur with those that say #2 does not make the cut.
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