So I'm travelling last week and my wife is emptying her spare change bin to wrap and take to the bank (she's not a coin collector at all). When she's wrapping the coins, she happens to run across what she thinks must be a foreign coin but then quickly determines that it's an Indian/Buffalo Nickel. She has listened to me preach about rarity and all the numerous factors (market interest, conditional rarity, graded rarity...ect...the poor woman!). Anyway, she knows to not only look for the date, but the mint mark as well. So in her spare change (not coin rolls) she happened to get a 1924s. Astonishing considering our times and the fact that when I was beginning the hobby, I went through countless rolls of nickels unsuccessfully looking for varieties yet still finding nothing. As I recall, nothing even pre 50's. So here's what she found (see pics). You folks who are Buffalo nickel specialists, your opinion on grade would be appreciated greatly!. No matter, I think it's an amazing random find and can only guess that this somehow accidentally got released into the wild and no one bothers to look at their change anymore.
I have not studied this type in detail but I'm gonna take a novice guess at G or VG, although the mark on the Indian's cheek and the hind quarters of the buffalo (oh, excuse me, "BISON", thank you @Garlicus ) might give it a "details" designation?
That seems to be how it goes. I collect wheat pennies, but never find any in my change. Only when roll searching. My friends and family seem to have no problem finding one in pocket change from time to time though. My dad even found one in one of those take-a-penny leave-a-penny trays the other day.
Nice find! I'm no buffalo grading expert but I think that could pass for a Fine example. The date is clearly legible, and Liberty is still well defined, in lesser grades the date is often only partial and Liberty merges with the rim. Nowadays even a dateless buffalo is a good catch in the wild. I'd be thrilled to find that 24S. Congrats!
Thanks for the feedback and comments! When she called me and then sent a pic I was astonished that it came in her daily pocket change that she throws in the jar. I was thinking F-VF though if the reverse strike is usually weak, I did think that the obverse was closer to XF. Any way I look at it, she has me beat in coin collecting bargains, a semi-key bison nickel for five cents!
I'm at VF also nice find and quite valuable. I would expect to see this at $300+ if properly graded by a TPG at a LCS.
You've been owned, friend. Not just a Buff in change, but a semi-key boasting the fourth-lowest mintage of the whole series. VF at best, to my mind, but I'm no expert. Can you look more closely at the diagonal striations on the lower right reverse and report back?
Is this what you're thinking. I see the striations but really don't know what would cause them, though I'm certainly no varity expert. I don't think that it would be PMD as they don't cross the date. Any ideas? It does appear to the eye to be textural not something like an alloy issue. It's almost like when you buy a used car and the more you look at it the more things you see. After I got out the stronger magnifying glass I see that it looks like the scratch from the hind to belly actually goes the all the way across the coin from edge to edge (you can see it just over the V in FIVE) which I'd guess would curse me at a TPG to ungradable / Genuine / VF details?
My take on this specimen is that it's not genuine. There's several items that speak volumes to me. Personally I wouldn't purchase it. The Rear leg isn't right or is the mint mark. The biggest clue to me is finding a key coin in circulation in vf. Condition seems a tad bit strange...true stranger things have happen but this one I wouldn't touch .
Something about it seems off, esp. the look of the reverse. Those marks that go under CENTS strike me as unusual. But , I do not know the series.
I don't know about the back leg being suspect but the s does look very z-like. Not sure how if it was a fake, it would have gotten out there though. The only thing that I could think might happen is that someone tried to fake it then failed a a TPG? Then released the experiment back into the wild? I have looked for varieties of the S mint mark as well as fake 1924-s and can't really find much information or images. Someone in the know, could they explain how a forged S could be put on a coin like this? I've heard of gluing, etc, but this doens't appear to be glued. It still looks more like a thinner S smushed to look closer to a Z with maybe PMD? I would agree with @Paddy that I wouldn't buy this coin based upon the images (300 is a steep price range for uncertainty). I guess question would be would you folks feel it worth the price to send off to a TPG with the chance of a bodybag? I could always go to the ANACS booth at the next local coin show and see...of the grading services, this would be the lowest gamble price.
I don't really fool with buffalos personally, but if I did and I was in your shoes I'd only gamble on grading if I was planning on selling. If I was going to keep it in my collection I'd just leave it raw and not worry about it.
Excellent point! I prefer ungraded anyway. I'll just make a note on that one to ge it graded prior to selling just in case anything comes up sketchy. I too don't collect Buffalo's but am sure I can make a place for it in one of my flip albums.
Another point to my argument of the Op coin not being genuine is placement of the mint mark look at the placement of the Op coin mm. A few post afterwards there's another specimen posted compare the two. Next look at the mm on the Op coin not only does it look like a "Z" look closely around the mm . Not having the coin in hand it's hard to tell but to my eye it looks like a mm that has been removed from a genuine specimen and placed on the Op coin. Those markings as well as the Z shaped S and placement is what I question. Add to that it was found in the wild....makes me believe that it's not genuine.
Just an update on the actual thread. I sent it to NGC for grading on the insistence of my wife (she just wanted to see if it was real). Result when I checked online, XF-45, must have accounted for a weak strike or something. I was with the rest of you that this was F-VF at best. Will post a pic of the holder when it's back.
