I've always wondered about this coin? Was the die for the 1937-D Three Legged Buffalo Nickel abraided prior to ever being placed in service or is the abrasion due to reworking a die that was used previously and being placed back into service? And if it is a reworked die is there any known examples of coins struck by this die prior to being abraided?
The die was being polished and according to legend "an overzealous Mint employee" ground the foreleg off. The hoof is there, but just the bottom part of the leg is missing. Prior to this polishing the die was indeed in service but I don't know if there's any way to determine what the die looked like prior to polishing. There were obvious clash marks because the die was polished, but there is almost no way of knowing how many or where and therefore very unlikely that one could determine what die variety this previously was.
