Grading the Buffalo Nickel

Today I am posting two 1913 type 1 Buffalo Nickels . At present both coins are raw, with one at a TPG waiting to be graded. The purpose of this thread is to get an over view of your grading skills when grading a buffalo nickel. Both specimens are toned, that said you can judge on eye appeal, but not on you prefer a blast white coin over a toned one.
{Your grading each coin should be an understanding of the coin itself.} Not just ah it looks like a MS 63 or 65. You must add your reason as to why you think the coin is the grade you believe it to be. The 1913 Buffalo was minted in two types a type 1 and a type 2. The two coins you'll be grading are both " type 1 coins." the mintage was 30,992,000 on the type 1 ,and with a matte proof mintage of 1520 coins .

Next one must take into consideration that grading a buffalo nickel can be quite the challenge. Often the Buffalo nickel were weakly struck,and can lack details. Even on mint state coins they can show signs of unevenly strikes or weak spots.
The fields are not the usual flat surfaces ,but textured that can also be a challenge as the texture may also throw off your vision,and trick your eye. I was always taught that these several items
The feathers, Hair and braids, Lettering and date, jaw ,and cheek, on the obverse
The reverse, the Horn, cape, split tail, lettering on the reverse,
are what to look for on a Buffalo nickel. Again remember that weakness may apply to one or more of these areas. But you as the grader must consider this fact, and make a decision based on what you see. That are the facts you know as a grader about the series.

Let's see what we can learn together about this series. That way if you as a collector do happen to run across a specimen you would like to purchase you can use this drill to make the right choice.

Here is a still shot of coin A as with it changing the lighting you may not be able to adjust your vision to make a correct call.

Coin B tone is in hand is lighter in color in hand. The photo has been enhanced as to color. However the colors shown are true just a bit lighter then what the image shows.

 

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Coin A
I think is a weaker strike than coin B both Obv. and Rev. but I think it has the presence of some good luster, the thing that I see are the possibility of a few slight marks on both sides, which I cant quite tell if they are weak strike related or done post strike. include the slight stains in front of the Buffaloes head, they are distracting. I would put it is a 66 possibly a +

Coin B
Shows good luster and a good strike, I still don't know what to think about the Liberty on the obv. The feather is full and grabs my eye, but what also catches my eye is the nick on his cheek bone. The reverse horn looks strong. The only thing I question is the color, if it straight grades I would say this is a 66.

 

PLEASE tell us how to make an image that switches back and forth, like your first image!! Have never seen this before. If it's a feature from PhotoShop, etc., I wouldn't know about it, as I have never owned any kind of image-modifying software.

 

It's a GIF, if you have editing software, you can place images over one another and run them into a loop, it's a lot of fun to play with.

 

Thanks. I just now Googled the phrase "freeware for making GIFs," and there's plenty of hits and programs, so will get my computer repairman to select and install one.

 

My process to make this GIF is extremely simple.

I make them for two reasons.

1. Luster is very difficult to portray in a static image. If you have a couple of images you can show the light at two different angles, giving the viewer a much better feel for the coin.
2. More subtly, a slightly animated image, even just two frames, works with the brain to fill in the gaps that you can't see in a still. You get the information about the 3-D contour of the coin and the brain turns it into something much more.

My process is pretty simple - incredibly so. Anyone can do it.

I got to the point where I found lighting that works and a camera setup that takes adequate images for the web. I take two shots of the obverse and two of the reverse. I rest the coin on a black foam insert to reduce reflections from its surroundings. The first photo is taken with the insert tilted up on one side on a piece of cardboard to get a good lighting angle. Then I slide a second piece of cardboard under that edge to increase the angle and take the second picture. I do the same for the back.

I erase the background down to black, and crop each image to 800x800. I join the first front and back, then the second front and back, to make two images like the one you see above. These I save as .JPEG files and .GIF files. The .GIF files are needed because I use the world's oldest and worst piece of software, Microsoft GIF Animator, from 1996. It's just good enough to join together the two GIF files. I choose to loop it forever, and set the duration of each frame to .9 seconds.

It takes a lot of words to describe, but none of these steps is particularly hard.

I hope you try it. You can see more examples over in the Post Your Lincolns thread.



And, everyone, please weigh in with your opinions on grade, and why specific features helped you decide on that grade. We are really hoping to learn some things about grading this series of very special high-relief coins.

 

No buffalo hunters?

 

Well I just started coin collecting and specifically buffalo nickels so I appreciate this thread. However, buffalo nickels have been giving me fits learning to grade determining wear vs lightly struck coins. Liberty on coin B has me confused but I think it's the lighting as I'm assuming it might be struck better than it looks. Pluribus Unum on coin A seems mashed together which I am assuming is lightly struck, someone please correct me if I'm reading them wrong as I really am trying to learn.

 

I found this URL in my bookmarks:

http://coinauctionshelp.com/How_To_Grade_Buffalo_Nickels.html#.WKvQL0-Xzgx

I do not agree with the first coin shown, which they call G-4; my opinion, it barely deserves "Fair" -- the others look OK.

 

I cant get a read on the luster, but my impression is
#1)-65
#2)66

 

So this brings up a question, could a lightly struck but otherwise flawless coin with full mint luster theoretically be a MS-70 or does the lightly struck affect the grade?

 

I would say yes! For the simple reason if you read up on buffalo's you will find that certain dates are weak strikes or have strike issues.
That said I would have to believe if a TPG were grading a buffalo they would have to definitely pull a book out and research each date as its attribution.
After all how could you retain all of the information of a series that was struck for what 22 years . That have so many variations .

 

The following date are usually unevenly struck,with weak areas in the details .
1913 s both V l & V ll
1917 D
1917 s
1918 D
1918 s Nickels dated 19 s,20 s,23 s,25 s,& 26 D
1919 D are seldom found with full details.
1919 s matte proofs 1913,1916 are spotted &
1920 D stained.
1920 s The 37 3 legged always shows weakness
1921 s due to excessively polishing the die.
1923 s
1924 D
1924 s
1925 D
1925 s
1926 D
1926 s
1927 D
1920's
1928 D
1928 s
1929 D
1931 s
1934 D
1935 D
1935 s

 

MS63 - subdued luster
UNC details - artificial toning

 

PCGS has a great video on grading buffalo nickels and strike always comes into play, even on dates that are not as well struck. It's somewhere on Youtube.

 

James Fraser the designer of the Buffalo nickel gave us a timeless design. He also gave the U.S. mint a run for the money as his design was timeless but in the beginning the design caused many issues . The Coin design as well as the blanks jamming up in the coining process caused Charles Barber to write the director of the mint. { George E. Roberts}
The coining room were only able to get 1/3 of the number of pieces per die pair.
It was causing mint workers to work over time trying to meet production schedules.
This was caused by the design and shape of the dies.
The dies were so convex that if the feed of the blank skips,
The dies come together . The left the strikes to be very worn looking. As well as causing the dies to wear out at an alarming rate.
Just like the shield nickel being struck in a extremely harder metal ,compared to a silver alloy. The Buffalo nickel design though timeless was very hard to get a full production run.
Other issues were the the words "Five Cents" as well as the "date", sat so high on the design that a change had to be made or they would of worn out at an excessive rate.
Thus the reasons for a design change from type 1 to type 2.
Die life of the type 1 Buffalo 150,168 strikes.

 

Is that your final answer?
Would you like to phone a friend?
I seem to recall A 21 D .....that didn't fair out to well.....

 

A good place to get a reference to the ideal coin is at either the PCGS or NGC sites. If you look at PCGS CoinFacts for the 1913 Type 1 Proof, you will see that even the ideal coin has the same squashed appearance to E PLURIBUS UNUM.



I am actually impressed that the mint chose such a funky typeface for the lettering. It seems like something that would be more at home on a web page than a coin. I definitely like it!

 

Hey I think all my coins are MS68's too, man. Haha! Doesn't make it so.

 

The Buffalo series is one of my favorites, and for me the most difficult to grade. I'm guessing 65 or better on both.