I commented to my son a while back that I hadn't found any indian head nickels in all the thousands of dollars of nickel rolls I'd searched. Wouldn't you know last night I found four indian head nickels in a search of 50 rolls - the goos news. The bad news is that not one of them had a readable date. Now, my question is: What are they good for? What would you do with them? I'm open to suggestions.
No date Indian Head Nickels still carry a small premium over face but the best thing to do with them is to give one to a kid that's interested in coins. To help feed the flame.
well every once and awhile I know collectors that gather all the silver coins they got from roll searching, go to the dealer, and cash in for a nice coin they always wanted.
I have a couple of indian head nickels from my late father-in-law that had some sort of acid applied to the date area and it brings the date through. I don't know what the "acid" or whatever it was used but I'd be curious to see it tried again. SINFUL...Maaaaybe! ;0
Coin World recently did an article on Buffalo Nickels used in the "arts and craft" industry. They are in demand for everything from lighters to belt buckles. Apparently these artists are not too happy that actual Buffalo Nickels are costing more and more as the population of these nickels deplete. Selling costs of a Buffalo Nickel (1913- 1938) is around 12 to 17 cents each.
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You can get a product called Nic-A-Date ,which you can find at dealers or Ebay ,you just put a bit over the date area and it will eat away some of the metal & you will be able to see the date clearly.You have to be careful buying buffaloes online because some people will try to pass off acid treated nickels as untreated though they are usually easily told apart. I don't buy them but if you have some with no dates I always figured theres no harm in treating them because an acid treated key coin can be sold easily so long as you say it is and I would always treat a no-date coin that has a mint mark.By the way you can teat the mintmark area also.
... I have a small bottle for nickels that I purchased about 30 years ago, I believe is called "Coin Date". Can't get to it right now or I would look. But it does restore the date. Its fun to see what date will pop up, but I would think they are about worthless using the stuff. (you can tell I'm a little slow typing, thats probably the name of the bottle)
Reggie you might think they are worthless & I would not buy them but" restored date" Buffaloes are being bought and sold every day on Ebay, especially the key dates to be used as fillers.
I never heard about this sort of date restoration technique before. It's very interesting. I have a few no-date nickels but I think I'll just keep them the way they are.
It's an acid. The theory is that the metal that forms the date is harder - so when you apply the acid, it eats away the softer metal around the date allowing the date to be visible once more. But the coin is forever marked by the acid.
If anyone has a restored date buffalo nickel, could you please post a picture? I am sure there are many nickels less than VG grades that are for sale. It would be educational to see and nice to be able to pick out though coins with restored dates and those that have not been doctored.
Thanks, for the Ebay advise. This brings another question to mind. Is it possible to doctor a nickel in VG/F grade and improve it to a F/VF grade? I can think of nickels with decent detail, but have a poor date.
I only saw four listings. They were all from the same person and all for the exact same 1915 D buffalo. Man I really hate people that reuse pictures. Especial when the items price is highly dependant on condition.
... Personally I wouldn't use the restorer if the dates are readable. I would think that using it to improve the grade would be a bad idea. The surface restored would be noticeable. Maybe its improved by now, the bottle I use was purchased in the 1960s...
