Hi all. Just my 2nd post. I posted a few days ago about a small collection I got from my father. I went out and got "COINage" It lists the prices for the Buffalos. I pulled out the ones that had the best prices from the collection. I'm not sure on the condition of them. Someone told me they are graded from the back? Could someone help me on the condition of these. The dates are: Top 1918-D over 17, 1917-S, 1915-S Bottom 1937-D 3 Legged, 1926-S, 1924-S It's not a complete set, but it looks like my father had some good ones.
I have always had difficulty grading Buffaloes from pictures, so here are the guidelines taken from the Red Book: Indian Head or Buffalo Type 1913-1938 G4 Good - Legends and date readable. Horn worn off. VG8 Very Good - Half horn shows. F12 Fine - Three-quarters of horn shows. Obverse rim intact. VF20 Very Fine - Full horn shows. Indian's cheekbone worn smooth. EF40 Extremely Fine - Full horn. Slight wear on Indian's hair ribbon. AU50 About Uncirculated - Traces of light wear on only the high points of the design. Half of mint luster is present. MS60 Uncirculated - No trace of wear. Light blemishes. The first grading point is the horn on the reverse. After that, the cheekbone and hair ribbon the obverse.
To grade any coin properly you need to see all three sides. Obverse, reverse and the edge. But typically when using pics just obv & rev is sufficient. But you must see both.
Of course Doug is absolute right with his advice on grading, but I have found that if I pay special attention to the Indian side of the coin, the Buffalo and horn will generally take care of itself. So I might say I base my decisions about the coin from the head side. Especially the Buffalo five cent piece.
