Please help - interesting Buffalo Nickel find

airjoedan · September 18, 2007 12:20PM

Hey guys, I recently helped clean out a house that has been in the family for a 100 years to prepare for an estate sale. The house itself is actually 150 years old and the upstairs and attic have not been used for 30+ years and have 60 years worth of crap in them. While I did not find any baseball cards (which I collect), I did find a few old coins and a bunch of old magazines, newspapers, keys, cheap jewelry, books, and other antiques. Anyways, I posted for help on some coins/medallions I found and got some great information on this message board that helped me sell them in this particular auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280147553181 . I have another find from the same house that I need some help with. In the corner of the attic in a glass deodorant jar I found a few beat up morgan dollars, barber dimes, and this defaced buffalo nickel. I thought it was wierd as it has a hat and a beard etched over the indian's face. Anyways, I searched online to find out this is callled a "hobo" nickel. While I am 100% sure this is authentic to its original time period in the depression given where I found it and the family history to the house.........I'm curious, is there ANY value to it? I mean, is it worth a few bucks? Or is it worth just a nickel? When I search for hobo nickels on eBay I find all these modern ones....is an original worth less or more or what? Thanks for your time in answering my questions, this board is always a great help!

- Joe

airjoedan · September 18, 2007 12:21PM

The date on the front is 1913 and I do not see any mint mark on back......not sure if any of this matters though.

Thanks,

- Joe

Barndog · September 18, 2007 12:30PM

try poking around here for info on the nickel

airjoedan · September 18, 2007 1:04PM

Thanks for the link but I don't see much information in regards to value of original hobo nickels only of the newer modern type. Some of the modern carvers sure are talented, those pieces of their's must be worth a lot with such fantastic detail.

Thanks,

- Joe

Shamika · September 19, 2007 3:25AM

While YOU can be sure this hobo nickel is original from the period, any buyer that would be interested cannot be sure. It's your word against nobody elses. Either way, it's should be worth at least a few dollars.

airjoedan · November 1, 2007 1:21PM

I finally got around to listing it on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1913-Buffalo-HOBO-nickel-Original-found-in-estate_W0QQitemZ280168543547QQihZ018QQcategoryZ139807QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

I received a helpful email from someone telling me this was called a "peanut ear" and was definitely authentic. I'm still not sure what these go for but the current bid is certainly a suprise and I have received a few pretty decent offers, though I think I'll let this one go at auction.

Shamika · November 1, 2007 1:23PM

Linkafied!!!

Type2 · November 1, 2007 1:41PM

Do you have pic of the other coins ?

airjoedan · November 6, 2007 1:50PM

Quite a suprise, guess it was a good one. The eBay route was definitely best as every person I asked about this predicted it to be valued at $20 or less. Apparently the "peanut ear" hobo nickel is quite collectible. As for the other coins, no more hobo nickels, just a bunch of wheat pennies and a few barber dimes and morgan dollars. Thanks again!

- Joe

Please help - interesting Buffalo Nickel find

Comments

Leave a Comment