As we all know, the dates on Standing Liberty Quarters and Buffalo Nickels tends to wear down easily. I have a few dateless buffalos and SLQ's in my collection. Some I was able to barely make out a date, but others i can't tell at all. Other than looking for small year-specific details, is there anyway to tell?
Many No Date Buffalo Nickels and Standing Liberty Quarters can be acid dated! Also, the 1916 SLQ's can usually be identified by the details which were changed in 1917. The Other, Other Frank
Well i definitely don't have any 1916 SLQ's or 1913 Buff's. Already checked for those 1-year only details. Any more info on acid dating?
Basically you drop some acid on the coin where the date was, and after some time the date will appear, due to latent stresses in the metal from when the coin was minted. This pretty much destroys any collector value the coin may have, but if it was a dateless cull in the first place, it's not like you lost much.
Agreed, Coin World buy for dateless Buff's is 12 cents each. (why is it so easy to say cents in that sentence, yet difficult to ask a teller for $50 in cent rolls? It just seems awkward).
Yeah, these coins are well worn. I just want to know what the dates on them are out of curiosity. I have two dateless SLQ's and 3 dateless buffalos. Maybe i'll try nic-a-date on the buffs. Is it true you could xray the metals to see what was imprinted on them before it was worn away? Not that i
I guess my message got cut off. I was about to say that i wouldn't go through the trouble to x-ray some 10-cent coins. It was just something i read. The X-rays can see the stresses in metals caused by whatever was imprinted on them. Just some food for thought, i wouldn't go that far
I have to agree with Doug 100% even if you found the date the value and grade of the coin would be not worth the EFFORT. BRUCE.
what if you find out you have a key date? if you had a buffalo nickel with a mintmark of D and you put the acid on it and the date turned out to be a 1914, could you still sell it for the price?
good question How about a 1913 type 2 nickel? Or a 1918/7-D nickel? I know the odds are very slim, but in the rare case you acid date one of these rare nickels, would it then have some value...even if severly reduced? That's not the reason i am interested. I just wanted to know dates that's all. The older the better for me EDIT: Actually i just took a look at one of the nickels and it is a D mint nickel. I'm trying to make out the date as i can barely see it but i'll keep working at it under different light and with magnification. I had a couple other buffs where you could barely make out the last 2 digits of the date and i beleive i might have enough to do the same with this one.
Any coin that has had acid used on it to reveal the date, mint mark or variety diagnostic is considered to be damaged. Now, that being said, if you were to find a particularly valuable coin by this method, yes it would be worth more to some people. But a dateless Buff is worth about 7 or 8 cents, and by revealing the date with acid you might get 10 cents so that a collector could use the coin as a filler, but I wouldn't expect any more than that. For key dates like the '14-D, if the date is barely readable it will grade AG-3. If the date is not readable it will grade F1 or PO1 with value of 7 or 8 cents. To make the date readable with acid, you might get a few dollars for it, again from a collector wanting to use it for a filler. This is why I say it is not worth the effort.
I doubt that X-rays would bring out the date. Now an Electron Microscope might do it. Renting one from the Fermi or Abbott Labs would only cost about $1,000/minute. However, you would be assured of the date. I think it would be easier to just give them to a kid that is just starting out in coin collecting.
