Help on this 1928 Buffalo Nickel

Yesterday, this shop owner I know took in this Buffalo Nickel and asked me to look at it.

The surfaces are strange and unlike any I have ever seen.

The luster is similar to that of a coin that has possibly been plated, but the details belie that fact, they are sharp.

There appears to be raw (unalloyed) copper peeking out of the coin on the buffalo's shoulder, and on the Indian's feathers.

Normally, I would assume PMD or copper plating, but if that were the case, the copper would have worn from the high points and remain in the recesses. this coin exhibits the exact opposite.

Is it potentially an improper alloy?

Does that command an interest within the error community?


Thanks in advance for your help.

 

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Your coin is POLISHED. IMO, the copper you see is from an improper alloy mix - the same thing that causes "woodies" on cents.

 

Interesting. The plating process won't affect sharpness - electroplating is only molecules thick and not capable of changing the features. An incomplete/improper plating process could look like this. I'm not sufficiently expert on the topic of Buffs to opine whether a poor alloy mix could result in this look, and am interested in what the next posters have to say.

 

My first thought is that this Buff has been buffed.

Chris

 

been cleaned and is now re-toning...

 

agreed

 

ONLY IF the nickel was first plated with copper and then incompletely plated so that the copper plating shows through! IMO, 99% Not the case here.

 

Buffalo nickels DO NOT "re-tone" with shiny copper colors!

 

FYI.. you will not see the copper in an alloy mix...on nickels, improper alloy mix shows as dark parallel lines

 

Thanks for this bit of misinformation. I have learned over the years that one should never use absolutes when teaching about coins.

While you are correct that most streaks on nickel coins are shades of brown... When the patch of copper is large enough and on the surface it can turn BRIGHT, SHINY, copper color (as seen on this piece) WHEN THE COIN IS POLISHED. BTW, when dip is put on one of these spots it turns DULL PINK.

 

I will absolutely take your coins if you give them to me.

Chris

 

What confuses me about this coin is the copper color is not restricted to high or low points in the design.

We're it plated, the wear would have removed the plating from the highest point, the shoulder, but I see it prominent on the shoulder and in stretches onto the fields of the coin in protected areas.

How can that be?

 

Easy! It is not plated, it is polished. Wherever the copper was on the planchet it shows up on that part of the struck coin.

 

it makes sense, but why would the polishing expose the copper? Why would it not just look like polished nickel on the surface?

 

If it was polished. Wouldn't that mean that the copper color that is showing is the core?. Wouldn't it leave some kind of line? Like a lamination?
The copper color seems to fade from the high points.
I would have to agree with the cleaned theory.
Although I would be interested to see it in hand, then possibly a holder
Which grading company is the hardest on Questionable color?

 

It's a nickel, not a cent, there is no core

The coin is made from an alloy of 75% copper and 25% nickel

 

I understand and you are right.
I was just thinking out loud. Could some of the copper not have mixed with the nickel.
And there is some lustre that the Photo is not showing.

 

The copper is on the surface. That is why we can see it. Polishing made it shiny.

 

Need to disagree. Polished coins DO tone over time. In my experience the process often takes longer because the polishing makes the surface less vulnerable to the environment. Furthermore, the amount/originality of luster on a coin has nothing to do with whether it will tone; however, any luster present will usually make the toning more attractive.