So, i got some dateless buffs, what do i do?

My distantly-related-uncle used to collect. He's seventy five, he selling it all off slowly now. So yesterday, he left my dad a bag of coins to give me. After receiving them, i called him, thanked him, and looked in. An Ike, 1976. from Philly. A JFK, 1976, Philly. A few wheat cents. Then the interesting part starts.
So, there were five buffalo nickels, all dateless, oxidated, scratched, just, nearly almost cull. I considered cleaning only the bottom part, with the date, but i don't whether i should or not. Can i safely apply Hydrogen Peroxide, or whatever with a Q-tip, to the nickel without causing toning, or acid spots. My chemistry is pretty rusty, what do you recommend? I don't want to dispose, or sell them, but add to my collection. Should i just dump it in the solution, or just do the Q-tip thing, if the Q-tip thing wouldn't work, can't i just dunk a quarter (25%) of it in? Thanks.
-John

 

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I'd throw em in a solution of white vinegar and a little bit of salt. After about 12 hours you should be able to see the dates.

 

Thing is, the dates are really rubbed off, good. I used a magnifying glass, plus a police grade light, and saw only a few numbers. First i saw a 19120 on one of them, it could be a 1920, but i rather know for sure. Might they ruin? I was thinking, if i were to do it quickly, the Q-tip thing, would the date show? I don't want the coin to look like garbage after. Thanks for your opinion.

 

They are already basically cull coins. IMHO they won't be hurt at all by soaking them.
Also, I've had some buffs that were pretty much completely rubbed off and I was able to coax a date out after a good long soaking.

 

But, can't i just dunk a quarter of it in , leaving the rest of the coin uncleaned? Can this process take minutes, or hours?

I really appreciate your help, man.

 

For the vinegar/salt solution, it usually takes me a few hours at least to start to be able to see a date. Either way, your coin would be considered "damaged". Honestly though, I don't think you are losing anything since they are already dateless.
Just curious - Do any of them have mint marks?

 

Th

The 1920 ( I think ) one was from Denver, another one with an unknown date was also from Denver. I know, cleaning them, and finding out it's a key date would make be happy, but munch up the value. But, i was thinking of getting a clean ashtray, and putting the solution on one end, and the nickel on the other, cleaning the date side. Reverse up? Maybe that will work?

Come to think of it, i examined the other one earlier, from Denver, and I'm sure it's either 1913, or 1918. So if it was 1913, I'd have mixed reactions...

 

I toss my dateless buffs into a small glass dish.
If you clean a part (the date) you have just "ruined" the coin as if you would have tossed the entire thing in the solution. That's just my opinion.

 

I see, i don't really care about the uneven space. I rather have some of the nickel left. Just to try to prevent acid toning, i guess the safe route would be to clean the whole thing. Thanks for everything.

 

There was a great article about this in a mag a few months back (helpful, right? I read a lot...). Basically their consensus was that a dateless Buffalo is a cull, and anything you do to modify the coin to see the date makes it details. There are coins that are desirable regardless, and the rest are no more or less a cull. I say soak away. There is also a product made for this very thing, but the vinegar and salt solution is much less invasive.

 

Do not forget to check other parts of the coins for anomalies. See if the obverse are two feather varieties for instance. Even dateless they have a slight value as a type coin.

 

There is a product out there called Nic-a-date which is made specifically for bringing out dates on old nickels. I don't know how it works, but I used it on some dateless Buffs I had and it worked really well. It's not very expensive, and you can put just a drop or two on the date area rather than soaking the entire coin, and it works in just a minute or so. You can also do multiple applications to bring the date out.

 

Thing is, after an amount of time, most likely years, the color of that area where you put the nic-a-date will turn a dark color. I see this a lot on lots of buffalo nickels. The date area only will be a brownish color. Not that you're going to affect the value since they are almost cull, but if furryfrog02 has had good luck with his method, it's a whole coin type of treatment which means the coin will do whatever it will do over time evenly, no spots with different color.

 

Will baking soda work?

 

Nothing visible. Cleaning time!

 

Pics when you're done!

 

Grab momma's vinegar, or cough up for a bottle of nic-a-date (which works very quickly... no need for a "minute or two"). As has already been made abundantly clear: they're essentially culls, and even IF you managed to locate a "key", it doesn't matter anyway. You're not going to hurt the value because a treated example isn't worth anywhere near an original, plus you're not going to know if you have one unless treated. There are a few dates that bring modest premiums once treated (not including all the 18/17 or 16 DDOs that, ahem, "magically" seem to appear... roll eyes here), so please, don't worry about it. There are also some that can be identified even without a date, but let's just say this is rather involved. You've been given reasonable advice; either take it or leave the coins as-is. Good luck.

 

Thanks, anyway, just tellling everyone, i dumped all five coins in, I'm taking them out a 10:30 PM, I'll post a picture.

 

I find that odd for someone so initially worried about doing this (waiting until X time instead of just long enough), but I'll keep my fingers crossed....

 

1913 D confirmed, pictures later, the dates are still hard to read, so i have to wait some more. Hopefully the solution wont worsen the dates if i keep them in there. It's been four hours.