On an old manufacturing site

[TORRERO]

Visiting Destin Florida and pulled this nice Boy Scout piece from an empty field, also a buffalo 🦬 Nickel, a Mercury Dime and 5 wheats.
Any information about that Boy Scouts badge would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tnt-hunter]

Visiting Destin Florida and pulled this nice Boy Scout piece from an empty field, also a buffalo 🦬 Nickel, a Mercury Dime and 5 wheats.
Any information about that Boy Scouts badge would be greatly appreciated.

Congratulations on some interesting finds. The Boy Scout item is a mother’s pin for the First Class rank in scouting. They were given to the moms when a boy earned his rank and he got the cloth patch for his uniform. A lot of units stopped given them out years ago and some boys buy them and use them as hat pins or put them on their merit badge sash (they are not supposed to go on the sash, but they do it anyway).

Good work, stay safe, good luck and keep swingin.

 

[Jose The Goon]

Visiting Destin Florida and pulled this nice Boy Scout piece from an empty field, also a buffalo 🦬 Nickel, a Mercury Dime and 5 wheats.
Any information about that Boy Scouts badge would be greatly appreciated.

Nice finds ! Your buffalo nickel is interesting. I can't see the date on the front but on the back it looks like there is a mint mark. Also, it looks like it may be the buffalo (bison) is standing on a "raised ground" which would make it a 1913. Closer examination would help with the ID on the date. If it is a "raised ground" it can ONLY be a 1913.

 

[TORRERO]

Nice finds ! Your buffalo nickel is interesting. I can't see the date on the front but on the back it looks like there is a mint mark. Also, it looks like it may be the buffalo (bison) is standing on a "raised ground" which would make it a 1913. Closer examination would help with the ID on the date. If it is a "raised ground" it can ONLY be a 1913.

Buffalo is too far gone to read the date 🤷🏼‍♂️ sorry 😞
Also I don’t know anything about a “hilly” buffalo 🦬… never heard that before… I thought the 1913 didn’t exist… but now that I think about it… that’s the 1913 V Nickel… am I right?

 

[Jose The Goon]

Buffalo is too far gone to read the date 🤷🏼‍♂️ sorry 😞
Also I don’t know anything about a “hilly” buffalo 🦬… never heard that before… I thought the 1913 didn’t exist… but now that I think about it… that’s the 1913 V Nickel… am I right?

Yes the 1913 V nickel is one of the rarest of U.S. coins. Only 5 are known to exist. The 1913 Buffalo nickel was a transitional coin that had mintages in the millions, but there were 2 types. The raised mound type was changed to a flat ground type mid-issue because of wearing issues, thus, the only Buffalo nickel with the raised mound was the 1913. That's why I said that if you can identify the raised mound on the reverse side (which yours kind of looks like) you could prove that it is a 1913 even if the front of the coin's date is unreadable. The following link from PCGS explains the mound change.

Type 1, "FIVE CENTS" On Raised Ground - PCGS CoinFacts

Learn more about Type 1, "FIVE CENTS" On Raised Ground Buffalo Nickel coins and get more information by variety.

www.pcgs.com

"David Bowers (edited and updated by Mike Sherman): In 1913 the Liberty Head nickel, which had remained in service since 1883 was replaced by a new design, the so-called Buffalo (more properly, the Indian) nickel by James E. Fraser, a well-known sculptor. The obverse portrait was modeled from life by studying three Indian models, while the reverse was styled from a bison, popularly called a “buffalo,” at the Bronx Zoo."

"The obverse depicts the head of an Indian facing right, with LIBERTY in small letters at the upper right edge, and the date at the lower left. The reverse shows a bison standing on a raised mound, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and E PLURIBUS UNUM above, and FIVE CENTS on a mound below.
It was found that the relief of the mound caused the inscription in that area to wear quickly, so the bottom part of the reverse was subsequently redesigned, creating the so-called Type II. The Type I is distinguished by the presence of a mound with FIVE CENTS inscribed on it, as noted. Production of business strikes was accomplished at Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco, with Philadelphia registering by far the largest mintage. At Philadelphia, 1,250 Matte Proof examples were made for collectors."

"Examples of the 1913 Type I Buffalo nickel are readily available in all grades from About Good to Uncirculated. Superb Uncirculated coins are scarce, although not rare. Matte Proofs have survived in relatively few numbers, and of the 1,250 minted, probably not more than a few hundred still exist. As certain business strikes closely resemble Matte Proofs, care is to be taken when buying one of these."

1913 Type 2 on flat ground photo from PCGS

https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/1913-d-5c-type-2/3922/68

​

 

[ToddsPoint]

For $5 you can get a bottle of this stuff. One tiny drop where the date is and it will magically reappear. I had a roll of dateless buffs I used it on. It leaves a spot where the date is so the coin will never be collectible but it’s better than being dateless in my opinion.

 

[jewelerguy]

No need to speculate on the date of the buffalo or for nic-a-date solution to bring the date out. It's a 1913 type 1 as identified by the mound the buffalo is standing on. Later that year they changed to the type 2 which changed the mound to a straight line and all years after that were the same.

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Great finds - congrats !

Not all the time but most of the time I had pretty good luck using "Nic-A-Date" on Buffalo Nickels.

 

[Red-Coat]

Any information about that Boy Scouts badge would be greatly appreciated.

The Boy Scout item is a mother’s pin for the First Class rank in scouting. They were given to the moms when a boy earned his rank and he got the cloth patch for his uniform. A lot of units stopped given them out years ago and some boys buy them and use them as hat pins or put them on their merit badge sash (they are not supposed to go on the sash, but they do it anyway).

Boy Scouts of America was founded on 8 February 1910, and your badge is from their early history.

According to the Virtual Scout Museum, upon induction, scouts would be given a metal ‘Tenderfoot’ badge to be worn on the breast pocket and, from 1911 onwards, ‘Second Class’ and then ‘First Class’ metal badges were awarded to mark achievement. Your is ‘First Class’ and intended to be worn on the left sleeve between the wrist and elbow.

To progress to second and first classes, a scout needed to pass a number of tests, and was not allowed to earn ‘merit’ badges until he achieved ‘First Class’ status.

These pins were manufactured by T.H. Foley of 1 Madison Avenue, NY until around 1915 and by an unknown manufacturer thereafter. Although the 1911 patent was valid for 14 years, and the badges still in production until the early 1920s, around 1913 they began to be replaced by sew-on fabric patches worn in the same position. Photographic evidence suggests that many Boy Scouts actually wore the metal pins as hat badges and continued to do so after cloth patches were issued.

 

[TORRERO]

Boy Scouts of America was founded on 8 February 1910, and your badge is from their early history.

According to the Virtual Scout Museum, upon induction, scouts would be given a metal ‘Tenderfoot’ badge to be worn on the breast pocket and, from 1911 onwards, ‘Second Class’ and then ‘First Class’ metal badges were awarded to mark achievement. Your is ‘First Class’ and intended to be worn on the left sleeve between the wrist and elbow.

To progress to second and first classes, a scout needed to pass a number of tests, and was not allowed to earn ‘merit’ badges until he achieved ‘First Class’ status.

These pins were manufactured by T.H. Foley of 1 Madison Avenue, NY until around 1915 and by an unknown manufacturer thereafter. Although the 1911 patent was valid for 14 years, and the badges still in production until the early 1920s, around 1913 they began to be replaced by sew-on fabric patches worn in the same position. Photographic evidence suggests that many Boy Scouts actually wore the metal pins as hat badges and continued to do so after cloth patches were issued.

Thank you 😊

 

[oldmxrat]

Cool finds, congrats!

 

[tnt-hunter]

Boy Scouts of America was founded on 8 February 1910, and your badge is from their early history.

According to the Virtual Scout Museum, upon induction, scouts would be given a metal ‘Tenderfoot’ badge to be worn on the breast pocket and, from 1911 onwards, ‘Second Class’ and then ‘First Class’ metal badges were awarded to mark achievement. Your is ‘First Class’ and intended to be worn on the left sleeve between the wrist and elbow.

To progress to second and first classes, a scout needed to pass a number of tests, and was not allowed to earn ‘merit’ badges until he achieved ‘First Class’ status.

These pins were manufactured by T.H. Foley of 1 Madison Avenue, NY until around 1915 and by an unknown manufacturer thereafter. Although the 1911 patent was valid for 14 years, and the badges still in production until the early 1920s, around 1913 they began to be replaced by sew-on fabric patches worn in the same position. Photographic evidence suggests that many Boy Scouts actually wore the metal pins as hat badges and continued to do so after cloth patches were issued.

As always great information. Your information goes back further than mine and the pin in the post may well be one of the older ones. When I was a scout and in my early leadership in scouting we did give them as mother’s pins. I do find the different rank pins regularly in a camp that did not open until 1981. I do believe they may still be available for sale in some scout supply stores.
Stay safe, good luck and keep swingin.