1936-D Buffalo Nickel 3-1/2 LEGS?

Golden1 · Dec 19, 2008

Detecting season is over in Berkshire county for 2008

But we have to keep busy,so i was going through some of my coins and putting them in protective holders for display. Well i had a ziplock bag with about 45 Buffalo nickles in it and as i was recording them i was also looking in the red book for the price for each of them, About half way through i picked up a 1936-S put that one in it's folder then i picked up a 1936-D looked at the book it read $1.50 for VG. Then i saw 1936-D 3-1/2 legs!!!!!!!!!!!

so i looked at it closer with my mag glass and WOW I ALMOST FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR

Could it be true?
Any thoughts from the experts on T-Net
P.S. This coin is in my colection and is NON DUG!

Thanks for looking
G1
The Buff on the left is the 1936-S for comparision
The Buff on the right is the 1936-D 3-1/2 leg I hope!

hogge · Dec 20, 2008

Re: Looking through my nickels.............

Fred (S.Indiana) said:
I thought I may have a 3 1/2 leg 1936, but within my ten rolls I found this, a 1914 D buffalo, what a surprise, my uncle left me these when he went into a nursing home in 1992, bless his heart, needless to say, I am quite excited, now to get it graded, I hope it at least grades as a good.......................

I'd save your $ on the grading, your at G-4.

hogge · Dec 20, 2008

jeff741972 said:
Nice nickel, but I wouldnt say it looks anything like the 3.5 leg, looks worn to me. The left side of the leg looks to be much higher in the side by side comparison. For what it could be worth though, send it to a good slabber, could be quite the return for you!!

Opinions vary.....and sometimes it rains :icon_scratch:

It's a die error and it "mirrors" the Stacks" coin. The coin Golden1 has is "highlighted" by the dirt around the leg.

crazyjarhead · Dec 20, 2008

Nice find Golden. Not sure about your coin

jeff741972 · Dec 20, 2008

The one in the middle is his right? I would have a pro look at it.

hogge · Dec 20, 2008

jeff741972 said:
The one in the middle is his right? I would have a pro look at it.

Yep......Stacks Auction House.......Then ALL the pros can look at it! :thumbsup:

treasurefiend · Dec 20, 2008

It looks like a winner to me!!! Get it graded to be 100% sure!!!

Yes the dirt is highliting it. DO NOT CLEAN IT!!!!! Just get it slabbed. :thumbsup:

Golden1 · Dec 21, 2008

creeper71 said:
Cw, not the same error but close yours the leg is entirely missing... Golden1 part of the leg is missing..CW did you look at the pic on stacks? that will show you what Golden1 is talking about.. I am still convinced it's a 3 1/2 leg

Thank's creeper71 for your Input! I think it is to :thumbsup:

G1

Golden1 · Dec 21, 2008

Re: Looking through my nickels.............

Fred (S.Indiana) said:
I thought I may have a 3 1/2 leg 1936, but within my ten rolls I found this, a 1914 D buffalo, what a surprise, my uncle left me these when he went into a nursing home in 1992, bless his heart, needless to say, I am quite excited, now to get it graded, I hope it at least grades as a good.......................

Nice Buff Fred :thumbsup:

Golden1 · Dec 21, 2008

jeff741972 said:
The one in the middle is his right? I would have a pro look at it.

Thank's jeff, Yup call on the pro's :thumbsup:

G1

Golden1 · Dec 21, 2008

hogge said:
jeff741972 said:

The one in the middle is his right? I would have a pro look at it.

Click to expand...

Yep......Stacks Auction House.......Then ALL the pros can look at it!

Thank's Sherm, Yep Stacks Auction House........We will let them decide!

G1

Golden1 · Dec 21, 2008

TreasureFiend said:
It looks like a winner to me!!! Get it graded to be 100% sure!!!

Yes the dirt is highliting it. DO NOT CLEAN IT!!!!! Just get it slabbed.

Thank's TreasureFiend :thumbsup:

And slabed it's going to be :thumbsup:

G1

twistidd · Dec 21, 2008

This thread is going to have all kinds of people checking their buffalos :wink:

Joe

Golden1 · Dec 21, 2008

twistidd said:
This thread is going to have all kinds of people checking their buffalos

Joe

Thank's Joe,
As well they should :wink:

G1

Jeffro · Dec 21, 2008

Its not the 3 1/2 leg variety, I'm 95% sure. I have a couple that look just like this. You can tell by the patch of ground just right of the front legs. See how it extends further into the field on this coin?

The 3 1/2 leg variety was caused by excessive polishing of the dies. If this were the rare variety, the patch of ground wouldn't extend as far into the field.

There are less than 40 known examples of this coin.

Your example is one that is midway between the rarest, and a fresh die.

Still worth getting checked out, but I'm leaning on the side of caution here.

hogge · Dec 21, 2008

Grinchy Elf said:
Its not the 3 1/2 leg variety, I'm 95% sure. I have a couple that look just like this. You can tell by the patch of ground just right of the front legs. See how it extends further into the field on this coin?

The 3 1/2 leg variety was caused by excessive polishing of the dies. If this were the rare variety, the patch of ground wouldn't extend as far into the field.

There are less than 40 known examples of this coin.

Your example is one that is midway between the rarest, and a fresh die.

Still worth getting checked out, but I'm leaning on the side of caution here.

So is there a die variety classification this one falls into? Maybe a 3-3/4 legged var? :icon_scratch:

Why don't you post one of the couple you have like this to satisfy everyones curiousity.(mine) :thumbsup:

So how do explain the size of the leg as compared to the regular 1936-d and the 3-1/2 from Stacks?

Jeffro · Dec 22, 2008

hogge said:
Grinchy Elf said:

Its not the 3 1/2 leg variety, I'm 95% sure. I have a couple that look just like this. You can tell by the patch of ground just right of the front legs. See how it extends further into the field on this coin?

The 3 1/2 leg variety was caused by excessive polishing of the dies. If this were the rare variety, the patch of ground wouldn't extend as far into the field.

There are less than 40 known examples of this coin.

Your example is one that is midway between the rarest, and a fresh die.

Still worth getting checked out, but I'm leaning on the side of caution here.

Click to expand...

So is there a die variety classification this one falls into? Maybe a 3-3/4 legged var? Why don't you post one of the couple you have like this to satisfy everyones curiousity.(mine) So how do explain the size of the leg as compared to the regular 1936-d and the 3-1/2 from Stacks?

I thought I did that.... the missing leg is from die polishing. The patch of ground you see to the right of the legs is way to far into the field... I'm sorry I can't explain it an better than that.

Jeffro · Dec 22, 2008

OK, I guess I can try.

Buffalo nickels are a set in which you see various stages of die polishing. The first things to go when a die is overpolished are the least-raised areas on the coin. This is why you see so many two-feather varieties out there. (The middle feather, barely noticable, is missing)

Same thing with this leg. The leg isn't as far gone as the rarer variety, and one way of telling is comparing the patch of ground in the photos that someone did side by side up there. You'll see what I'm talking about if you look closely.

The ones that I have are more than likely in my loose Buffalo bag, as I'm not finding them in my nicer coins which are in holders. It's late, but I'll take a look through the loose ones tomorrow. :thumbsup:

hogge · Dec 22, 2008

Grinchy Elf said:
OK, I guess I can try.

Buffalo nickels are a set in which you see various stages of die polishing. The first things to go when a die is overpolished are the least-raised areas on the coin. This is why you see so many two-feather varieties out there. (The middle feather, barely noticable, is missing)

Same thing with this leg. The leg isn't as far gone as the rarer variety, and one way of telling is comparing the patch of ground in the photos that someone did side by side up there. You'll see what I'm talking about if you look closely.

The ones that I have are more than likely in my loose Buffalo bag, as I'm not finding them in my nicer coins which are in holders. It's late, but I'll take a look through the loose ones tomorrow.

OK.....you are obviously knowledgeable in this area. If not the rare variety, and not the common variety, then there MUST be a classification for this TYPE. What is it?

Golden1 · Dec 22, 2008

hogge said:
Grinchy Elf said:

Its not the 3 1/2 leg variety, I'm 95% sure. I have a couple that look just like this. You can tell by the patch of ground just right of the front legs. See how it extends further into the field on this coin?

The 3 1/2 leg variety was caused by excessive polishing of the dies. If this were the rare variety, the patch of ground wouldn't extend as far into the field.

There are less than 40 known examples of this coin.

Your example is one that is midway between the rarest, and a fresh die.

Still worth getting checked out, but I'm leaning on the side of caution here.

Click to expand...

So is there a die variety classification this one falls into? Maybe a 3-3/4 legged var? Why don't you post one of the couple you have like this to satisfy everyones curiousity.(mine) So how do explain the size of the leg as compared to the regular 1936-d and the 3-1/2 from Stacks?

Right Hogge! I must have missed that part of Grinchy,s reply. If you have a couple that look just like it maybe you could post one of them and we could compare yours to mine! That would be very helpfull Thanks :thumbsup:

G1

Jeffro · Dec 22, 2008

I'll do my best to find one.... there's a gang to go through.

I guess the misunderstanding is that this is not a die error, like a double die, or a die chip, or something uncommon that makes one set of dies stand out from another.

This is caused from straight out die polishing. In those days, and in the buffalo series in particular, they tried to get as much life out of a die as humanly possible. Once the dies got kinda wore out, they would polish them down a bit and reuse them. So its not like a particular set of dies that a rare error comes from in this case.

I think there may have been one set that got polished WAY beyond what their limits were, and so we have this variety.

Point is, you will see many "in betweens" if you start looking into the details on this series. You'll see some with all three feathers, some with only two feathers, and a bunch that are in between. I think management was supposed to keep a closer eye on these details once they got past a certain point, and the three legged varieties are rare only because some inspector caught it before they went too far into a run. If the inspector had never caught it, well, they wouldn't be rare now would they? This is just my best guess, I'm far from an expert.

If you look at the pics above again, you'll see that the first one is almost completely gone, barely there. Then yours, which is thin, but still raised. Then a regular one which is thick and raised. You should be able to see the progression.

I certainly hope you do have the rare variety, and it is still worth checking out. I simply think that one of these "in betweens" is more likely the case.