• Forum server maintanace Friday night.(around 7PM Centeral time)
    Website will be off line for a short while.

    You may need to log out, log back in after we're back online.

Date On Buffalo Nickel

Martin_V3i

Elite Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2010
Messages
5,130
Location
North DFW, TX
Found this today. I think I see a 1938 or 1936. Do you see it? Also, how do you clean it? Will virgin olive oil work? It isn't worth much I this shape.
 

Attachments

  • FA69E568-4AB5-4019-926F-926EF1942441.jpeg
    FA69E568-4AB5-4019-926F-926EF1942441.jpeg
    115.2 KB · Views: 249
Found this today. I think I see a 1938 or 1936. Do you see it? Also, how do you clean it? Will virgin olive oil work? It isn't worth much I this shape.

It looks like you already rinsed it with water. I've never found water to help with details on old nickels, and the flaking makes it worse. I leave them be until I get home and have time to work on them. I let the dirt dry out and the next step is cleaning with a blunt wooden toothpick or skewer. If I want to go farther, then it depends on the reason and the coin's condition. It might be a soak in olive oil, or tumbling, or steel wool, or repeated soaks in Gojo.
 
Found this today. I think I see a 1938 or 1936. Do you see it? Also, how do you clean it? Will virgin olive oil work? It isn't worth much I this shape.

Oh, as for 1936 or 1938, I say 1938. Even if you can't decipher the 6 versus the 8, you can look at some other clues. The 3 is different between those two years. It's narrower on the 1938. Also, the numbers on the 1936 are thicker and closer to each other. I think you have a narrower 3 and the numbers are more spaced out. So, 1938.
 
Found this today. I think I see a 1938 or 1936. Do you see it? Also, how do you clean it? Will virgin olive oil work? It isn't worth much I this shape.

It’s always hard to be sure with just a picture, even when it’s a good shot like yours, but I think I see 1930.

For cleaning, it depends how far you want to go. If you want to remove some of the crud, but leave the reddish-brown patina, I use Andre’s pencils on many of my older nickels, and a very judicious use of 0000 steel wool for certain stubborn areas. If you want to try to establish a little of the “original” silvery shine, you can go heavier on the 0000 steel wool, or an SOS pad. I’ve also had good success soaking nickels in Gojo (the hand cleaner) for a day and scrubbing with a toothbrush, repeating that process until you achieve the look you want - but I’ve only experimented with that method on pre-1960 Jeffersons.
 
....I’ve also had good success soaking nickels in Gojo (the hand cleaner) for a day and scrubbing with a toothbrush, repeating that process until you achieve the look you want - but I’ve only experimented with that method on pre-1960 Jeffersons.

Yeah, I've been pretty impressed by the Gojo technique, including v nickels and buffalos. Trivial loss of any details and you end up with some highlights.
 
It looks like you already rinsed it with water. I've never found water to help with details on old nickels, and the flaking makes it worse. I leave them be until I get home and have time to work on them. I let the dirt dry out and the next step is cleaning with a blunt wooden toothpick or skewer. If I want to go farther, then it depends on the reason and the coin's condition. It might be a soak in olive oil, or tumbling, or steel wool, or repeated soaks in Gojo.

I found it in soupy, bog like ground. Water was in the hole.
 
I found it in soupy, bog like ground. Water was in the hole.

That's both fortunate and unfortunate. Once they get wet and oxidize there's not a lot of "cleaning" options. You can polish them through mechanical abrasion, such as steel wool or tumbling, checking regularly for loss of detail.


Or, you can try daily soaks in GoJo, which works through some chemical reaction to remove the "rust" and a bit of abrasion from the pumice. There are some posts about it if you search the board for "gojo". Here's a youtube video about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgUBjaEAFpA
 
That's both fortunate and unfortunate. Once they get wet and oxidize there's not a lot of "cleaning" options. You can polish them through mechanical abrasion, such as steel wool or tumbling, checking regularly for loss of detail.


Or, you can try daily soaks in GoJo, which works through some chemical reaction to remove the "rust" and a bit of abrasion from the pumice. There are some posts about it if you search the board for "gojo". Here's a youtube video about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgUBjaEAFpA

Thanks, and I do admit that the appearance did get worse after I used water at home. The rust color was new. What is the best first thing to do just to get to the date? It is just so tempting try and see the date, the same day.

1938 is what I see also.
 
I couldn't stand not knowing so I hit it with some 9um glass polisher. It wasn't valuable like it was.
 

Attachments

  • 899BA140-A53F-418B-86AA-3970A9991639.jpeg
    899BA140-A53F-418B-86AA-3970A9991639.jpeg
    87.3 KB · Views: 201
Back
Top Bottom