although several coins of long term seeking were missed or passed upon, I still managed one nice pick up.

I must start by thanking and apologizing to Jason C. It seems he was perusing my sets and happened upon my MS67* Buffalo nickel. He and I were beginning to throw out some soft offers for a possible trade for the coin. I had not been overly attatched to the coin and really only bought it on impulse because I always wanted just a single attractive buffalo nickel as an example in my collection.

The story has a bit more to it than that though. One day as I was looking through some coins with my 3 year old granddaughter-Jade ( and she does have the most beautiful big green eyes you have ever seen) she picked up the 38-D Buff and stated how much she liked the "pretty coin". She informed me that it was her favorite because "orange is my favorite color, did you know orange is my favorite color paw paw?" With those beautiful eyes and innocent face looking at me and holding the coin, I did what any self-respecting grandpa would do, I said, "you can have it."

Well I have been keeping it safe for her and recently when I pulled it out during discussions with Jason about a trade, she saw it and squealed excitedly, "my coin !! I love my coin paw paw." So that was the end of that trade ( and I had been secretly figuring a way that we may work something out for his 1944 MS67* Washington Quarter.

So instead of a trade, I have decided to pursue a full buffalo nickel short set and have named it, "Jade's Buffalo...." because what type of grandpa would I be by building her an incomplete set?

Which brings me to the latest purchase. I don't have a huge knowledge of Buffs but I do have the David Lange Guide to Buffs and have read it a few times and use it as reference about strike and scarcity of each issue. It appears that the 1934-D is the scarcest of the "short set" buffs--scarcer even than the 1938 RPM's with D/D and D/S.

The NGC pops have not a single MS67 graded and only 18 total MS66's. That makes a gem or better the "key date" for this set. So when I saw an MS66 at the recent Whitman Baltimore show auction by Stacks and Bowers, I went ahead and threw in a solid bid which was consistent for others that had sold in the past.

For a change I did not enter my max bid and let it ride--I actually logged into the Live Auction on-line and was prepared to bump my bid a notch or two if necessary. Luckily there were no floor bidders jumping in and I got it below my initial bid.

So I guess I am now committed to the set--and nothing but the best for my only granddaughter. I figure an eye-appealing set of 66's and 67's will be a very nice heirloom from her PawPaw.

1934-D MS66...pretty strong strike for the issue and nice coloring...

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