worn buffalo nickel....anything I can do??

[funkman]

Dug up a buffalo nickel on Saturday and cannot get a date or mint mark off it...heavily worn (see photos). Is there anything I can do to find out what the year and mint mark are for this coin? Does it need a good cleaning or is the marking worn smooth and no hope of getting them? Also what caused the nickel to turn that dark brown/rust color?

Thanks

Funkman

ps. the nickel is obvious, the other coin is a arcade token....don;t care about that one.

[jeff of pa]

Sorry, Nothing I'm aware of.

Nic-A-date works on Non-Dug Buffalos, But I havn't had much luck with it on the Dug ones. Too Much Pitting.

[PBK]

As Jeff says, you could try to raise an "acid date" on it with Nic-A-Date.

Here's another version of the same idea, but using a slow-etch approach:

http://www.csudh.edu/oliver/demos/buffnick/buffnick.htm

My vote? Give it a good leaving-alone and just enjoy it as is... nothing wrong with an honest, rusty-red dug Buffalo!

[Minelab Ron]

I'm sure if I work with it more and had a better scan of it....I prob could get the date...but it looks like possibly 1916....

Can you rescan it and save it as a .tiff file...oh wait....you can't upload a .tiff....well, can you rescan it, just the Indian Head side and save it as a .jpg/.jpeg file and repost? I can copy from there and see what I can get.

Not saying it is 1916...but I see 1 9 ? 6.

Wait....looking at it again....maybe 1926.....

[Minelab Ron]

Forgot to tell you....what I do with my coins, with so much dirt embedded on it...I use a soft bristle toothbrush (one of the kids' old ones) and dip it in a bit of baking soda and wet the coin. I rub/scrub it on the coin to clean some of the dirt off.

Baking Soda is non-abrasive and very handy in the house to clean many things. So much better to than all these chemicals we buy at the store.

If no baking soda, just put a bit on the brush of dish washing liquid. You just want to get some dirt off, that's all, you don't want to make it pretty...may help before you scan it. I dab a soft cloth to the coin to dry it...never rub it. A polishing cloth is fine, if you have one.

I learned this method on an archaeology site on how they clean off dirt. Don't rub the coin with your fingers.