1923-S - Have You Heard Of A Herd Of Bison?

middle one has pvc damage

Please elaborate. I'm not sure what you're seeing.

Ah, yes, bit of verdigris. Time to break out the ole angle grinder and tickle her up.

as with many of the buffalo's each year presented different issues at each mint. for the 23S nickel production was notoriously soft, with many coins showing little to no buffalo detail. This was due to die wear and the mint's softer striking practices at the time. Coins that show strong buffalo detail are exceptionally rare

San Francisco's dies were in heavy use at that time, and the Mint's aggressive die polishing practices, common in the Buffalo era, could cause design elements to wear away or misalign. This environment made mismatched dies more likely, as dies were frequently replaced and sometimes paired incorrectly.

in addition to this, die polishing was common in the 1920's there, on coin one and two you can see this on the fur on the head. the other devices where this is prevalent is Bison's Hip, Flank, and Tail most noticeable on coin 2.

all of these need to be considered when grading in order to determine how much wear was actually strike and die polishing and one reason why this entire series is one left to those who are well versed in the series when purchasing raw. all of this not only presents a challenge but also makes the series extremely interesting.

coin 1 - I'm at AU50
coin 2 - needs acetone bath - lots of die polishing going on, head, shoulder and especially the tail area - VF30
coin 3 - VF35

hopefully fortcollins chimes in to either confirm some of my comments and smack me upside the head