I was inspired to post this because of the Heritage thread directed to Lehigh. Anyway, I picked up this sweet toned buffalo at the spring MSNS show. I paid a pretty penny for it, but it called to me:
I was at the MSNS show and seen a few dealers with some awesome Buffalos, wonder if you were buying this as I was standing there. : ) Very attractive piece. There was certainly enough nice stuff at that show.
Terrific coin ! Interesting... for some reason, certain coin types are more "prone to tone" than others. For instance, there are some great Buffalo 5c toners out there, but fewer Shield and V 5c. Lots of toned Morgans, but almost no Peace.
I bought this piece in the last row of the main ballroom, on Saturday afternoon. The dealer wasn't even at his table. I had to wait a good 10 minutes to find him and coax him back so I could buy it. In the meantime, a dealer friend of mine was looking in the same showcase. I had to shoo him away, and I told him I had dibs on that coin. Fortunately, he respected my wishes (or, more likely, wasn't interested in the coin.) You're right, though. There was a lot of nice material at that show. Especially the toned stuff. There was one dealer, though, that made me very angry. He had a lot of modern stuff that was wildly rainbow toned, and it was most obvious that it was artificial. The problem is that the stuff was in PCGS holders. I highly suspect that his slabs were gassed after they were graded, because there is no way PCGS would pass these coins as being naturally toned.
I got this tonned buffalo, but very lightly tonned and slightly blueish. It made it hard to photograph http://www.mrbrklyn.com/coins/buffalo/dsc00203.jpg
Borgovan, Your fourth picture, of the obverse with cobalt blue toning, is really stunning. I can really appreciate your comment about a coin that "called to me". I find that when I really study several coins and know what I would grade them, one of them will jump out at me as the right coin for me. I think that is part of the art and beauty of this hobby -- different coins will appeal to different people, even at the same grade. Love your coin. :thumb: John
Thank you very much. It's funny you mentioned the fourth picture, as that one most truly captured the color as the coin actually appears in-hand. In fact, I nearly left off the other pictures and I was only going to post that one. Thank you also for your introspective comments about the eye appeal of coins. No two coins are alike, no matter how we like to cram them into Sheldon's grading tiers.
nice coin Bogovan..Me thinks you should post that war nickel you showed me and silverstruck. stainless
That is a wonderful toned buff. Love the blue center. Congrats. And by all means, you should always, I mean always post a war nickel. cmon man, lets see it.