I was wondering how much my 1916 d buffalo nickel I raised the date on is worth. About one fourth horn shows.
well.....to use the acid pretty much means that it is damaged. So you might get $.25 or you might get face value. Speedy
but whats worth more, a blank buffalo nickel, or a buffalo that has had its date raised that would be worth 5 dollars if it hadnt had its date raised
But who is going to give you $5 for it? My local dealer tried to sell some (~10) on eBay for $0.99. He managed to sell a 1913-S type II for $15 (I think). The rest did not sell at all.
I always thought it would be kind of fun and fairly cheap to acid treat dateless buffs. Never have though..... I saw an acid 16/16 go for moon money, so it can be profitable.
But you still have the problem that it has now been damaged. A good rule of thumb is that a damaged coin (Finger printed, cleaned, etc) is worth about 50% the value of a non damaged coin. But in some cases it is cut back to melt value. Now a nickel has no silver or gold in it so I would say you would have a hard time finding someone to pay $5 or even $2.50 for it. Alot of people want the Dateless Buff's to make jewlry---that is what I would do with the dateless....or give them to young collectors or even spend them and make someones day when they get one in change. Speedy
Dealers will usually buy dateless nickels for $0.13 each due to the jewelry demand. So, if you can get more than that for a restored date, then go for it. I have seen the case where key dates, like the 16/16 or the 18/17 D will bring a few hundred each even with an acid treated date, but those prices are still far below what an undamaged coin is worth in Good-4.
If you are lucky enough to find a 1916 double die or the 1918/7 D overdate, you would have a nice find, otherwise they are not worth much, unless you get lucky and someone wants them.
That's what I'm saying. If you find the right s mint or overdate an you win the lottery for next to nothing. Sounds like fun.
If you acquire a large number of dateless buffalos and raised the date on them, it is possible that you could put together a date collection or partial collection. While a single acid treated coin might be virtually worthless, an entire matched set of them might command a significant novelty premium, sort of on the order of a type set of holed coins.
Monkeyman: The only way that I know of is nic-a-date. Never heard about the others. As for value, I agree with everyone above,nominal. However-----on eBay, the value could be billions. Who knows what it could go for.
Never heard of using lemon juice. There is a website about dating nickels that uses vinegar, you completly submerse it for weeks, it also brings back details. THe fastest is nic-a-date (i use this), it only takes a few seconds.
i always thought about buying a lot of no date buffalo nickels and buying a thing of nic a date and seeing what the date is. you never know, you might have a key date.:goofer:
