Adding a high-grade Buffalo nickel brings me full circle

Oh, I remember it well. Rows and rows of old Buffalo nickels sat in a red velvet-lined shelf in a little coin shop in the Bannister Mall in Kansas City, Missouri, teasing me in their splendor. I?m guessing it was around 1984, and 12-year-old Shanky kept his nose pressed to that rotating glass case for what probably amounted to hours during that 3-day stay over the summer of ?84. The old clerk behind the counter could only roll his eyes as I rotated the shelves over and over and over again, admiring all those old nickels in their cardboard coin holders while also probably wearing out the rotating mechanism.

I loved those nickels, and I desperately wanted to own one and add it to my collection. Most were extremely worn, to the point that the year wasn?t even legible, but I didn?t care. To the eyes of a 12-year-old, it was a jackpot. I had seen a few Buffalos at the flea market in my hometown, but not in this quantity. And the ones that kept my eyes transfixed were a row of splendid examples, all marked with a pen-scrawled ?XF? or ?Ex? in the corner; those exhibiting a superior luster, greater detail, and whiter shine than their counterparts.

Alas, the Velcro St. Louis Cardinals wallet in my back pocket only held about $4 at that point in the summer, and with our summer trip winding down and our return home rapidly approaching, I had simply failed to anticipate running into a coin shop in the middle of Kansas City. A 12-year-old simply doesn?t manage money well. But, I was determined to spend that $4 and add a Buffalo, but which one? I had narrowed my choices down to about 5 or 6, but after torturing myself for 3 days as a loiterer in that coin shop, it was decision time.

The old clerk was incredibly gracious and patient with me. ?Okay young fella, tell me which ones you?re looking at and I?ll take them out. You can inspect them up close.? I finally made my decision, but my eyes stayed trained on a higher-priced specimen in the case, and I admitted as much to the old clerk. That one carried a $16 price tag, but the old clerk just couldn?t part with it. Not for $4. So, I took my well-worn Buffalo and was proud to have it, and bid him farewell. On my way out the door, he pulled me aside and told me to keep working hard, keep being ?a good boy?, and one of these days I?ll have an even nicer Buffalo for my collection. I smiled, nodded, and told him maybe I?d see him again some time in my travels. It would never happen. As luck would have it, years later I would return to Kansas City as a nearby college student, and after a quick trip to the mall I found the coin shop was a long gone, replaced by a Hallmark store or something similarly crappy.

Twenty six years later, that day is finally here. Late yesterday afternoon I settled on a price for an NGC-certified 1937 Buffalo Nickel graded at MS 67. Based on the picture it is a lustrous and blast white example, and although it was certainly budget-busting, I?m comfortable with the price I paid for a high-grade example of a coin I?ve long admired. It also gives me a nice bump of 642 registry points, but more importantly I will finally own a pristine Buffalo nickel far superior than anything I saw in that coin shop in 1984.

The old clerk would be proud.