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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;buckeye73, post: 4592729, member: 93155&quot;]It appears that the buffalo nickel is not only difficult for the typical collector to grade, but also the so-called experts (TPG).&nbsp; My reference of choice when I revived my coin collecting hobby following marriage and starting a family was the “ANA Grading Standards“ 1977. In it there are fully 25 dates and mintmarks (about 1/3 of the total series) which are listed as commonly having weak strikes and have a lack of detail in even uncirculated grades.&nbsp;&nbsp; Essentially all of those&nbsp; before 1927 are keys, semi-keys or ‘tough dates’.&nbsp; That makes the choice of purchases of raw coins for the buyer difficult.&nbsp; Of course the VF required full horn, except supposedly those 25 cases.</p><p>Enter PCGS and other similar photo based grading references.&nbsp; Upon review of the PCGS Photograde site, only 2 of the buffaloes shown in circulated grades are in the list of 25 listed with commonly weak strikes.&nbsp;&nbsp; So one is generally not learning how to grade a tougher date circulated Buffalo from this site.</p><p>For the case of grades AU 58 to MS 63, all images are supposedly of usual normal strikes, but show weak detail or outright minor wear to my eyes. Of course, the MS 64 shows a weakly struck coin from the group of 25 list.&nbsp; The typical collector (myself included) would not care to pay MS 64 money for that weak strike coin, even slabbed.</p><p>BTW, I almost always wait for a slabbed buffalo with a strong strike or purchase raw buffaloes meeting the earlier ANA standards.</p><p>Dan[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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