It looks as if something has eaten into the surface of the coin. Maybe some kind of chemical that took a layer off of the top of the coin.
Maybe someone wanted to try Nic-A-Date on a coin to see what it would do before using it on a
Buffalo nickel or maybe it was just damaged by some kind of acid.
It doesn't look like lamination and I don't know of anything that would cause this at the mint. My very uneducated guess is post mint damage.
VERY uneducated!
Ben
ANA ID: 3203813 - CONECA ID: N-5637 Clean a coin that may be worth collecting? Please DON'T! When in doubt, leave it dirty!!
