How to Find the Value of a Buffalo Nickel With No Date

Do you have a buffalo nickel with no date on it and wonder how to find out its value? You may see a lot of websites that give buffalo nickel key dates for the "S" and "D" mint marks. But without the year, how do you determine how much the coin is worth?

Why Did the Date Wear Off?

The dates on many buffalo nickels have worn off because the date was placed on a raised portion of the design, which was on the front of the coin near the edge and on the depicted Native American's shoulder. Given that these nickels circulated very heavily for many decades, the wear and tear on them were pretty prevalent. If the date is not present on the coin, the coin will not carry a numismatic premium.

A coin collector must know the date to determine its value and see if it is a rare nickel or not. For example, undated buffalo nickels are worth about $0.06 each, but only because people use them for jewelry, shirt buttons, and various other uses. All other types of nickels without dates are only worth face value.

What Does the "F" Mean?

The letter "F" you see on the "heads" side under the place where the date should be located, stands for the designer's last name, James Earl Fraser. All buffalo nickels have the designer's initials on them regardless of the mint facility where it was manufactured. Sometimes the "F" has not worn off.

Buffalo Nickel Mint Mark

If your coin has a mint mark, it will be under the buffalo on the reverse ("tails") side of the coin, below the words FIVE CENTS. If the Philadelphia Mint produced the coin, there is no mint mark. The letter "D" indicates the Denver mint facility, and "S" stands for San Francisco. However, they are susceptible to unscrupulous people trying to add a mint mark to a common date coin to increase its value. Before spending big dollars on a rare buffalo nickel, make sure a reputable coin dealer authenticates it.

Recovering the Date

Sometimes it is possible to recover the date on a no-date buffalo nickel by putting a drop of ferric chloride on the spot where the date used to be. This extremely toxic chemical is called a "date restorer" and is sold under the trade name of Nic-A-Date.

Although it can cause the date to reappear on a no-date buffalo nickel, ferric chloride leaves a blotchy, rough, acid spot of damage on the coin that ruins the appearance of the nickel. Also, the date will fade over time, and each time you use the chemical, it brings back less and less of the date, leaving an increasingly ugly acid mark.

Professional numismatists will not trust a date that has been restored with ferric chloride. The coin can be tampered with to create the illusion of a rare date buffalo nickel by manipulating the metal on which the ferric chloride is applied. Therefore, be wary of any coin purchase that is based upon a restored date, especially if it is an extremely rare error or key date coin.

Partial Date Values

Never use chemicals on a nickel's surface to restore partial dates because a partial-date buffalo nickel can be worth more than a totally dateless nickel. Depending on which digits are, the nickel can be worth anywhere from $0.50 (if the part showing is the first two or three digits) to about 20 percent of market value if the last two or three digits are readable.

Identifying Without the Date

The first buffalo nickels produced by The United States Mint in 1913 featured the denomination of "FIVE CENTS" on a raised mound of dirt below the buffalo on the reverse of the coin. As these nickels began to circulate in their first year of issue, 1913, the United States Mint noticed that the denomination was wearing away prematurely.

Approximately halfway through 1913, the mint reworked the coin's design because of its flaw that caused the lettering on the back to wear off prematurely. This rework included the mound of dirt that the buffalo is standing on being modified so there would be a recessed space beneath it to display the denomination of "FIVE CENTS." This new design eliminated the problem of the mint mark wearing off the coin. The problem with the date or "F" wearing off was never reworked in the design. You can use these tips to try to better date your no-date buffalo nickel.

Find out how much your full-date buffalo nickels are worth in the buffalo nickel price guide.