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After I finish up up Kennedy half set soon, I think I want to move on to Buffalo nickels and have a few questions.

1. Does the Dansco 7112 (Buffalo Nickels 1913 - 1938), have holes for variates? JP's Corner does not say.

2. Is the The Official Red Books a Guide Book of Buffalo and Jefferson Nickels (Official Red Book) A good guide book?

3. Variates and Errors aside 1926-S , 1921-S , 1913D , 1913 S seem to be the keys correct?

4. Are the keys (none Variates and Errors) faked allot?

Input would be greatly appraised

Jim M

OK, let me see if I can help you here a little.

1. The Dansco does have the 1918/17D, and the 3 legged varieties in the book.

2. The Red Book is a decent guide for all US coins. Not a definitive answer to everything but certainly a good guide. ie.. mintages, etc.. pricing. no....

3. This is a tricky question. This depends on the grade of the set you are trying to put together. Just an average Circ. set.. 13s V2, 14D, 15S, 21S, 24S, 26S, 31S are pretty much the keys.

4. in the buffalos the biggest issue I personally have seen is the Nicka date being applied to the coins. I stay away from ANY buffalo that has had this applied to them. Its not hard to spot after you have see one.

I have seen a few fakes of the 14D recently. But I can't say that I recall seeing the problems in the Buffalos that I have seen in the lincoln and mercury sets.

Treashunt

Have fun, it is a great set.

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Rono

Howdy,

I've collected buffs for a long time and love the coin. The keys have all been listed so I needn't go over that.

They're an odd set in that there are many dates (early philly or all mints very late in the series) where BU's are common and within a average person's price range. There are other dates with D or S mints that are pretty expensive in any condition, but really pricey in high grades - you can hit 5 to even 6 figures in a heartbeat.

What I've noticed in recent years that you need to watch out for are buffalos sold as BU that have been cleaned and sometimes even retoned. Unless you're working with a dealer you know and trust or are buying slabbed coins, true BU's are tough regardless of price. It's almost easier to simply go with AU for the inexpensive dates and avoid the mess (I'm finding the same thing with Walkers).

You also want to watch out for Acid Restored Dates. For quite a while they've figured out how to use acid to restore the dates on worn buffalos and while most will ID them as such, some will try to pass them off. For those ID'd as such, it's like there's a parallel pricing structure for them relative the the un-retouched version. Prices on Ebay run anywhere from 50% - 75% cheaper for a restored date for some of the keys like the 1913-S V2.

However, all that said, the buffalos are still my favorite next to the Indian Head cent.

good luck,

rono

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Thanks for the input everyone

Speedy

I like The Comleted Guide to Buffalo Nickels by Lange.
Its a good book and has tons of info--I haven't seen the new Red Book for nickels but I've seen some of the others and they also look nice.

Speedy

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