I have just come across a 1938-D Roll of buffalo nickels and was wondering if they are worth more as a complete roll or if they should be graded by PCGS or such companies, I have never seen such beauty in Coins that are not at a coin show. They all appear to be MS-64++ condition Also was a roll of 1944-D Walking liberty Half Dollars in the same condition and was wondering the same about these. 1. What are they worth and should they be kept as rolls? 2. Should they be Graded? 3. What do you feel they grade? Thanks for your help! Kermit ** some of the photos were too large so i will try to add them later
Hard to really say with the limited information. Standard run of the mill 38-D buffalo's $250 per roll, standard 44-D Walker's $1600 per roll. Note: there is more numismatic value with the Walker roll than melt value. If you could pull off a few MS-65 grades and one or two MS-66's then grading would be the way to go to get maximum value. If they are just ho-hum garden variety, keep them in original rolls.
Rolls of 1938-D Buffs are relatively common. The coin you shared has a very weakly struck reverse and would likely not grade all that high. If you are not very familiar with grading then your chances of taking an enormous financial bath increase quite a bit if you submit them all for certification.
I showed them to London Coin gallery and the person there was very impressed by the coins. Are you sure that they are poorly struck? cause he felt that they would be 65 plus grade. I have collected for a while and have not even purchased a coin this nice
I'm only seeing the reverse image of one coin in this thread and that image shows a bison with a rather mushy front left shoulder and leg. It could be a mushy strike or just a lighting artifact. However, the 1938-D is by far the most generic Buffalo nickel and this means that you can buy certified MS65 or higher examples for not all that much money with respect to other coins in this series. When I wrote "not all that high" for grade what I meant was a coin like that might only grade MS64/65 and since this is a 1938-D then that is "not all that high". I don't know what you have into the coins, which will determine quite a bit how profitable they are for you, but if you look at closed auctions on ebay you can see pieces in PCGS MS67 holders for well under $200 and even under $150 per coin while in PCGS MS66 holders they can be had for under $50 each. Other grading services fare slightly worse for prices realized. Of course, if you have wonderfully toned coins you would likely realize more as you also would if you had an over mint mark coin. The coin you have appears to be the typical gold toning coin for the issue and this would not qualify for a premium to most people. My logic was such that if you paid on average Greysheet for the roll then you would have paid about $20 per coin. If you then had the roll certified by PCGS at the least expensive tier it would cost you $18 per coin for certification plus about $1-$2 per coin for shipping to and from PCGS. This might mean you are into each coin at $39-$40. If your grades are all MS66 and you sell them on ebay with an average sales price of $55 per coin, which is more than 10% above what you can buy them for on ebay, then you pay ebay and PayPal fees of perhaps 7% and this is about $4. Ebay also expects you to ship free or for very little and this may add another $3 for insured shipping per coin. The total expense would be around $45-$47 per coin to sell a roll of PCGS MS66 certified 1938-D Buffalo nickels on ebay if you received 10% higher than the current price of such coins in this grade on ebay. The profit would be $8-$10 per coin under this scenario, which is nice for 40 coins and adds up to $320-$400. However, you would have your money tied up for many months to do this and would be most likely making single sales over and over again. The hourly rate for the profit would start to drop after a bit. Additionally, you might get a PayPal scam on you, but that is a very small percentage chance. If you did not receive at least 10% over the current price per coin on ebay then your profit on the roll might be $100-$200 and obviously this is quite a bit less for a considerable amount of work. About six years ago I purchased a roll of 1938-D Buffalos and had the majority certified and it took nearly two years to sell them all at shows and online. They were a real drag and the coins that I had were hammered in terms of strike.
What he said^. 1938-D buffs are abundant in MS67 slabs. It's the date. Now if they were 1934-D's you would have a gold mine.
If you've been to shows, you've seen that there are so many MS65s and 66 38-D's around -- they clearly do not move quickly because there are so many of them in the market. A vast number of these last year coins were saved and are entirely common through MS67. Most have great strikes -- yours looks pretty typical of a 65 or so, based on the photo. The Walker roll is slightly more interesting. Any photos? These are pretty common through MS66.
