1913 D Type 1 Buffalo Indian Nickel. Toned. Gawk. Grade.

Hey merc. Responded to your 'cleaned' potential on that 1914 Buffalo. More like a novel. Haha But good observation. May be the plastic showing scratches in the light. Forgot it was still in holder. Will remove to verify.

For this 1913 D buffalo? Yes...an interesting fella. But pretty.

@Spence. Yea. I believe that more now. Was going with the Buffalo drop kick theory, but opted for the Die theory instead. lol I looked at it with a microscope @100x, and it clearly looks like a part of the coin. A real Die mess really. There is added metal, meaning, when struck, the planchet spread in odd places. Some letters were denied some metal while others have more than usual. All smoothed over with no indications of a post mint hit from normal circulation. I can take pictures of the microscope shots and post later. Easier to see what I am saying then. I mean it literally looks like the Die shattered or splintered in that area. The 'I' looks like a split fork. The 'A' is missing a part of one leg and the other is long and curved, and branches out to a three prong tail. lol It's crazy.

But you would think there would be other examples like it. Maybe there are. Or maybe the mint personnel caught it quick. Got rid of bad strikes they could find, and this one slipped by. Who knows. Nothing special. Just a weird look. If graded I imagine the TPG will attribute it to a mint issue and no effect on grade. Maybe.

But the toning is crazy. That's why I got it. Overall a nice coin. In my halogen light it is a looker. Colors radiate out in all directions with the luster cartwheeling. Very cool.

@Spence. OK Will do.

I would grade yours at MS-64.

Question to all...does the grading industry take into consideration the Die State when a coin was struck? Meaning they grade from a baseline of that particular Die? This coin here I posted as an example...will they consider say an MDS Die that may have struck it (worn will specific wear patterns from that Die), as opposed to an EDS struck coin (Die is near perfect, so coin must be perfect)?

Or does it matter at all. Meaning, regardless of initial strike quality, all coins will be judged on condition as is? This is excluding the identified Die error coins of course. I am just referring to common business strikes for normal circulation.

@acloco Crazy thing is I name all my coins. Working on one for this. That may be it. When they go to PCGS, they all will be in flips and the white cards. On those white cards I have typed info about the coin, but I also have a "NAME: xxxxxx" spot. Lol. Yup. So names are a part of the deal. One of my buffalo's someone said it looks like war paint on the Chief's face. Well...that was that....."NAME: Warpaint" :-) So let me think on "Sunset". I do like it.

Just named one of my Morgan's "Scarface", because Liberty has a small but perfectly placed scar (scratch) on her cheek, and filled in by grime or toning I guess. Nice coin except that sticks out, but Scarface is perfect. Should give the TPG a chuckle...if they have a sense of humor. Lol. Anyway...