1917 Buffalo Nickel In Very Fine Circulated Condition #2

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1917 Buffalo Nickel In Very Fine Circulated Condition #2 For sale is the 1917 Buffalo nickel struck at the Philadelphia mint in a business strike finish. Coin came from a friend wanting me to sell it for him. Photos are of the actual coin for you to be able to formulate your opinion of my coin. Excerpts from Q. David Bowers book A Guide Book of Buffalo and Jefferson Nickels which is considered a source for the history, grading, and volumes for these nickels and one that I use for learning the intricacies of the why’s of these two nickels to help learn why some years, especially in the Jefferson nickels, looked so poor in detail and condition even though they were BU nickels. Some basic points to know in nickels is that the nickel, because of it being so hard a metal had to be softened. The planchet’s had to be annealed (heating, then cooling them down slowly). After that they were cleaned in a soapy or acidic mixture, rinsed, and then dried by tumbling in sawdust or exposing them to currents of air. (Page 12 paraphrased). These cleaning procedures might be the reason for some of the toning that happens to these coins. As you can imagine the drying process in a tumbling machine imparted countless nicks and marks to both sides, a fact I didn’t know of. It was hoped that the pressing of the planchet’s in the coining process would obliterate these marks, but just like the Jefferson’s with the planchet checkering on the cheeks and shoulder not being pressed out, neither did it do it on the Buffalo nickels. The sharpness, or detail of a finished nickel depended on the technician who adjusted the press as well as the weight and preparation of the planchet’s. If the dies were placed precisely and the planchet was of the correct weight and annealed to ideal softness, the result would be a coin with detail very sharp. However, the mint allowed a 5% latitude in weight. If a coin was slightly over this weight the excess metal would have nowhere to go and would be forced out of the edges creating wire rims. It was also the cause for wearing the dies and cracking them. The mint’s answer to this was to space the dies further apart so over weight planchet’s could be processed faster without damaging the dies. Needless to say that adjusting the spacing to accommodate over weight planchet’s meant that normal weight, or even those up to 5% under weight didn’t get struck up entirely and had weak spots in the details of the coin. In 1926 the D Buffalo nickel’s struck had the spacing wider and resulted in very poorly struck nickels.As late as 2005 for the Westward Journey nickels had problems with annealing and press weight in the striking of the coins. From the Shield nickel’s of the 1800's, the nickel was cheap to produce and no attention to final product was given as the Jefferson nickels were collected by roll and not by grade. The mint wasn’t concerned with the detail of the coins, but just the production costs for producing the nickel coins. More attention is being paid to the production of the coins and why it is almost completely common to find a 6FS coin on any nickel you look at in circulation today and why coins before the eighties can look so poor. He stated on page 57 under Being A Smart Buyer of Buffalo Nickels: Realities of the Marketplace "Buffalo nickels are very complex. Because there are so many variations in sharpness, die wear, planchet quality, luster, and eye appeal, there is no way a single number can truly represent the market value of a Buffalo nickel." So, for one to begin to think they are experts, even they have differing sentiments on the same coin and why most grading companies have several people look at a coin to give their opinion of grade and then it is the average grade that is placed on the coin. Hopefully my pictures present the coin in good enough detail for you to formulate an opinion of my coin.Coin will be shipped out with the USPS First Class Mail with delivery confirmation for you to track its progress from my location to your location... read more

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