Sorry about the noise in the photos. Still working on coin photography. Lighting, reducing noise and capturing tone are all still works in progress. The mark across the reverse that looks like a hair is a scratch on the surface of the slab.
Tough series for me to grade in mint state. Very tough. I guessed 64, but could have guessed 63 or 65 too.
Well luster seems to rule more on buffalo nickels than the strike. I can't see enough luster to go 64, but hard to say. Plus for some reason the pictures don't seem to get larger for me now.
Guess the poll closed? I would have picked AU because it looked like wear on his braid to me. I don't know this series.
Although I love the design, I don't know the series well enough at all do do grading. I know there are some years/mints that aren't well-struck so what looks like wear is not. I think this one is one of those. It does look clean, with no distracting marks or anything. I'll go with 64 too.
MS-63 Thanks to all who guessed! And congrats to mark h for getting it right. I'm guessing luster is the reason it's not a higher grade. And the differences between the photos due to lighting is pretty drastic. There's also some cool toning I couldn't fully capture.
Just a lucky guess on my part. Really hard (at least for me) to catch the toning and luster on Buffalo nickels in pictures. What kind of toning? There are two types of slight toning I really like on these - a slight bluish type toning and a slight golden toning. In both cases the luster is really obvious with the toning as you twirl the coin. I sold most of my buffs, but kept the 1913's in 65. From that last picture it looks like it has the bluish type toning which can be really cool. Here is a picture - not mine - that kind of shows the toning I like. It actually popped more than the picture. One that was sold.
