I have 10 Buffalo nickels where the date is worn down to where it's unreadable. Are these worth anything more than face value; worth putting in 2x2's for preservation, or what should I do? Thanks, Brian
In my opinion, dateless Buffaloes are fair game for "restoration" -- plopping them into white vinegar, which will often bring out the date over a period of a few days. This "destroys their numismatic value", but that pretty much disappeared with the date anyhow. I do have one concern about this practice, though: I can imagine a couple of expensive techniques that might reveal the date (from density variations) even though it's not visible to the naked eye. If those techniques were to become widespread, you might be able to get an "invisible" key date slabbed, as with the "invisible S" ASEs (where the TPG can unambiguously identify them based on their shipping origin) or the dateless 1916 SLQs (where the TPG can identify other markers on the coin). If that ever happens, well, the acid-restored coins will still be "ruined", but the non-restored ones would presumably have some intermediate value between acid-restored and date-visible. But, realistically, especially for no-mint-mark Buffaloes, there's no value there to impair. Do with them what you want, or sell them on eBay for up to a quarter apiece.
Thank you for the detailed response! I guess I will just shove them into some 2x2s since I don't really need to sell them. I might try that vinegar thing with just one of them and see how it goes.
I challenge you to find a buffalo nickel with a date that you can buy for .20¢ worth of dateless buffalo nickels. Maybe a dealer in a shop would be willing to swap with you so you'd have at least one example with a date. Then you will have freed yourself of a pile of dateless nickels that didn't require you to 'clean' coins.
