Acid restored buffalo nickels

This thread is frim 2010, but to follow up. My problem with acid treated coins is that they can easily be manipulated to show any date that you want. Using the same process as printing a PCB, I can create any date that you would want including dates that we never made. I spend dateless buffalo nickels in the hopes that some kid will find them and start collecting coins. Bringing a new collector into the hobby is worth far more to me than a restored coin.

 

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I wish I hadn't read that. I'm strong in the face of temptation, but I'm not sure I'm strong enough.

 

There will always be people who counterfeit coins, or alter coins when they can for profit. Pretty much thru all the series including adding mintmarks, but that's a different discussion from accepting that a restored nickel is actually a genuine example of the mintage. Value is not the point. It's just that some purists operate as if the restored nickel shouldn't count for more than face value as far as origin. And always fun to spend the nickels, including poor condition V and shield nickels. Spend'em all the time especially at drive thrus and vending machines.

 

I don't believe that it is a different discussion at all. My point is that it is so easy to make any date that you would want that I have zero confidence that the dates attributed to "restored" date nickels are genuine. Don't you think that there Is an awfully large number of 1918/7 restored nickels out there? I'm not insinuating that there have not been genuine examples found, but I'm just not interested.

 

I understand. I applaud your personal choices as well as others who have different values and views. There are many base level coin "collectors" I have met in my 60+ years that swear condition means nothing to THEM...only the visible or restored date. (and as to altered dates, if you pay more than $2-$10 (high side) for a rarer date restored nickle, and it turns out to be an altered date....so what...you'll learn a lesson you should know moving forward into more valuable investments. Just figure you just bought yourself a happy hour drink for you and your buddy. LOL No big deal on a coin you look to replace at a later date anyway. And "altered" restored nickels are not in any kind of "abundance" anyone is aware of. If there are stories and reports of them, I would be very interested in reading up. (I have a collection and interest in counterfeit and altered coins made by the confederates during the Civil War) I think some people just are not "comfortable" with "open holes" in their coin books. Restored nickels can be looked at as a sort of "therapy" for those individuals. And again, a coin (restored or not) is worth nothing more than face value, unless there is another person out there that will pay more.

 

Well I live in New Orleans and if I had all of the money that I've spent on happy hour, I could buy the finest known registry set of buffalo nickels ever assembled. It's really not about the money for me, the thought that a restored date may not be what I think it is, is really the issue. I'm a nut job collector who doesn't like holes in my albums, but I also don't want anything that I'd consider questionable even more. To each their own though, if someone wants to collect restored nickels, I have no issue with that, why should I, it's their collection.