1936 Buffalo Nickel Thoughts?

I agree that it is quite difficult to assess from just pictures, especially the glare of the pictures I posted. I took them last night with overhead room lighting. I will try to take another set this afternoon with just natural lighting. I do believe it is one of those coins you have to see in hand and tilt it in the proper lighting. I will probably have to see what my LCS thinks about it. The fields are smooth, almost mirror like but not quite. There is no cartwheel effect, just reflective effect and I can't see any flow lines in the fields from the die. I'll post a new set of pictures later today.

OK, this has been difficult for me to capture the true images with the blazing luster. I took this set in natural light with my Ipad. I wanted to get rid of the glare from the first set of images. In doing so the surfaces are easier to assess but the blazing reflective luster isn't showing up very well.

Certainly looks like it might be a proof!

I hate to be such a pain with this folks. Really Hard to get a good image. Here is another video that I hope is helpful.

Sharper pics would certainly help, but even from these I can say with 99.9% certainty, this is a business strike. Two types of proofs were struck this year, satin and brilliant. Brilliant has far more polished fields, given it the "typical" proof appearance. The satin proof was exactly that, satin. The surfaces of your coin are too reflective and glassy to be a satin proof.

Also, the strike should be sharper for a proof. 36 satins are a bit more difficult to find in a full strike than other years, but should still be stronger than your example. There is noticeable weakness in the hair above the braid, buffalos head, and shoulder.

The rims should be more squared. The rims for this year typically aren't as wide as the early date proofs, but they should have sharper edges. Business strikes have a bevel to the edges, where proofs have a more defined edge. You won't be able to capture this in a pic, but take a look at the edge. The edge of a proof should have a more consistent polished look. A business strike will have noticeable striations from the blanking process. These will be vertical striations on the edge (if you're holding the coin horizontally).

Against, difficult to say without seeing in hand, but this to me looks like a dipped coin. When nickel is dipped it loses that cartwheel affect ans takes on a consistent glassy or oily like look. JMHO

It's just a nicely struck circulation strike coin. 1936 is a year with many that look Proof but aren't.

More than likely it will turn out to be a prooflike business strike but my gut feeling tells me I have to check into this further. I bought this coin about a year ago with the intent of cracking it out for a type set. I found a colorfully toned one instead for the type set so I just put this aside without giving it another thought. It wasn't until just a few days ago that I pulled out my boxes of slabs and started to compare other ms65 buffs to this one. This had such a completely different look to it, especially the mirror like fields, that I had to ponder the question of the possibility of a mis-graded proof. Still out of my wheelhouse for that diagnosis so I will show it to several dealers to get their opinions. I was hoping that FortCollins would weigh in but we haven't heard from him in some time. Hope he is well!