1965 Nickel With A Frosted Finish On The Building?

@kr, that looks like an impaired proof to me. A fun find to be sure!

Ah good point @john1.

Yes most likely an impaired SMS.

Please post closer pics of the steps. If it's an FS business strike, it would be worth a lot of money, as PCGS had only graded 2.

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Even with the picture sideways, you can tell it's not a FS.

For the OP.

Folks we know it is a SMS coin, he said he got it out of a mint set and the only sets they had that year were the SMS sets.

As for where the frost comes from. You have a early die state from new dies. After the dies are hubbed they are hardened so they can last striking the coins, and then tempered so the edges are not overly brittle and less likely to crack, chip, or break.

Doing this leaves the surface of the die with an oxide layer that needs to be removed. To do that the dies is pickeled in a mild acid solution.

The pickling leaves the die face very lightly etched by the acid. So the next step is for the face of the die to be lapped(polished) to remove the etching. But the lap polishes just the fields, it can't get down into the devices so the devices remain etched or frosted while the fields are now mirrors or near mirrors. When the coins are struck, you get mirror or near mirror fields with cameo frosted devices. This is also how the cameo proofs were made on proof coins through 1972 and where the deep mirror cameo Morgan dollars came from.

The etching imparted by the acid on the dies is very fine and shallow, nowhere near as deep as the sand blasted and later laser etched frosting frosting was applied to proof dies after 1972. So once the dies were put into use the movement of the metal in the devices fairly quickly "polished" away the etching in the devices and the cameo contrast is lost withthe devices becoming "brilliant". This is why cameo proofs are so scarce/rare between 1936 and 1972. After 1972 the proof dies were not used as long and were not just repolished and then put back in use. This allowed the cameo to last for the life of the die, and cameo proofs became the norm.

Nice treatment, Conder101.