After two years with this coin on my want list, I finally found one that I like. All of us have heard that the number given for mintage of a given date/mintmark is not a reliable factor for determining availability of that coin. The 1918 Philadelphia mint buffalo nickel is a very good example. With a reported mintage of 32,086,314 one would assume that it might be fairly easy to find an uncirculated example. Such is not the case for this coin. From searching for buffalo nickels in MS 63 and above I can tell you, for comparison, that the 1915, 1924 and 1928 (all P mint) were much easier to attain. These three coins come in with mintages of 8 to 9 million or so less than the 1918. In his book titled "The Complete Guide to Buffalo Nickels", author David W. Lange gives some speculation as to why this year/mintmark is harder to find in the uncirculated grades. And the best sentence from his speculation is "Where did they all go?". If any of you decide to complete a buffalo nickel collection in mint state and figure you want to start with the "hard" dates, it would be wise to add this one to the list. Here's the example I acquired about a month ago. Thanks for looking!
Your partially correct. I say partially due to certain things are depending or many factors. One is availability but other factors may be location, popularity, distruction. What I mean is the location where you live may be part of the problem. Example is I've been looking for a MS grade 1920D Lincoln Cent for many years with no luck. Naturally I keep away from the ebay stuff. Been there, done that and I won't do that again. Now going to about 2 to 4 coin shows a month a dealer said another dealer said he has several of them and the next time he is in this area, he will bring them. None around here but in another state appears to be more common. Popularity is another factor in finding a coin. With this lately super craze for coin collecting the Buffalo Nickel is a hot item as you may have noticed with the numerous newer types being made lately. By distruction there was a time when many Buffalo Nickels were drilled for charms, necklaces, etc. Lost in wishing wells, thrown into rivers, lakes, etc just for fun. Shot at with a .22 as I did for target practice. Another thing is so many people have began hoarding Nickels for thier metal content and will probably be melted down. I know there is a law against it but how do you inforce a law when someone has a lump of metal and you try to claim it used to be a coin?
Nice coin !! Congrats :high5: Carl - I think it has more to do with the dealers in a particular area than anything else. You can get any coin you want as long as you have the money and know who to ask. But the person you need to ask may very well live across the country.
