1919-S Buffalo Nickel. MS-65 (PCGS). CAC. Lovely cobalt blue and lilac-pink are seen on both sides. The surfaces are lustrous and frosty and the strike is well above average for the issue, with virtually all design elements razor sharp in detail. The 7,521,000 nickels produced at the San Francisco Mint in 1919 were primarily introduced into circulation with little notice. There they remained in commercial channels until the 1930s, when numismatic interest in this series picked up. By then, most had seen considerable use and were heavily worn, with many no doubt ending up as that bane of the coin dealer, the dateless Buffalo nickel. Scarce even above the Fine grade level, the 1919-S is one of the most challenging of all the Buffalo nickels to collect with excellent surface preservation and a quality strike. As the hubs used to prepare dies gradually wore down from repeated use, the dies reflected this wear, especially so with the 1919-S. In addition, the San Francisco Mint seemed to have frequent difficulty rendering the design fully, so much so that sharply struck examples of this issue are among the leading rarities in the Buffalo series. Mint State specimens are known in modest quantities, but they are seldom found above MS-64, and are rare with sharp to full definition. The Pogue 1919-S is a beautiful Gem that would be difficult to improve upon.
