1917-D Buffalo - Confirmation Of 3.5 Legs Please

I don't think this is the 3 1/2 legger as the mint mark is tilted clockwise and is situated too far right of the "E" in the five of "Five Cents" as pictured in the PCGS example.

The coin is too badly corroded to be of any significant value.

Others may have a different opinion.

I think @westensky is correct.

Western - it is an MD find. Probably didn't make that clear enough in first sentence where I said 'dirt' coin. I'll look for the die break, thx for the intel.

Never used NicADate but have plenty of cull buffalos to test with.

Interesting - does this match the one on PCGS?

PCGS 1917-D 3.5 Legs nickel

That's an expensive nickel, even in very low grades. I would really reconsider the Nic-a-Date idea until you've done more research. Once you use acid, the coin is toast, and the over polished leg is a subtle feature that will almost certainly be destroyed in the process. My speculation is that if you eventually feel confident in the attribution that you sell the coin as-is to an interested party, and let the conservation become their problem.

When I get home, I'll take a better look at this and PCGS. Also curious to see the after soak images too.

To see if it would be helpful, I tossed a 1963 nickel with a heavy brown patina (probably a beach coin) into a cup of 1/3 vinegar, 2/3 water. Perhaps that can gently lift the patina after a few days. I know that the pure vinegar soak can really corrode the surface, as tested in the nickel CRH threads. Vinegar still seems more gentle than Nic-a-date, though.

Surfaces on this one make it tougher to evaluate. MM does look slightly higher and rotated CW from known examples. This could be an anomaly of the surfaces though, so I'll ignore that.

Yours appears to have a more prominent front leg than the 3 1/2 leg examples. From what I've seen, after the last round of polishing on the reverse dies, the front leg continues to weaken a bit due to Die Deterioration, rather than continued die polishing. The example you have posted from PCGS isn't as late as some examples, the front leg is a bit stronger than others in even late die state with continued Die Deterioration. That said, angle of the pics, lighting, and shadows can make the front leg look more or less prominent, so I'll ignore that as well.

Lastly, Overall die state looks a bit early. Again, this is tough to judge with the surfaces. There is pretty severe reverse Die Deterioration for this date, with mismatched dies, obverse being much earlier die state than the reverse. There should be pretty extreme metal flow lines in the fields and even more so on the Buffalo. The belly, hindquarters, and rear legs are the best places to spot this extreme deterioration. From what I can make out on your example, comparing the lower rear legs, I'm not seeing the Die Deterioration. For that reason I'd lean towards not a 3 1/2 leg.

Definitely post some pics post conservation, curious how it turns out and will see if we can make out any additional details/markers.