1915 S Buffalo Nickel is it fake?

It's always the smaller details that counterfeiters mess up on. All of my Buffalo nickels have the same spacing with respect to the lettering and the design. The 1915-s differs too much.

 

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If you live close to where any major coins shows happen one of the big four grading services most likely will be there and they are all helpful in "giving" you a verbal opinion on the coin. If it is slow they will spend sometime with you. If it is the real deal you can submit right then and there for grading. If you are a ANA member you can join the NGC ANA Club right then and there. My son and I two years ago bought a 15 1/2 pound bag of Buffalos at an Antique Auction and got several key and semi key dates from the teens and twentys (including a VG 1913S Type II got slabbed by NGC) and then finished off the bag and got not one, not two, but three 1937D three leg Buffalos. One had a little crud on the edge sent them into ICG they conserved the coins with the grading fee and they came back VF30, VF30 scratched (it was there before we sent in) and VF35. They all looked great a "little" under graded in my book (isn't that the way we all feel about OUR coins) and the crud on the one was gone. DC

 

I agree that you could take it to a show, but I also believe the 1915 is a fake. One of the things I notice is the horn. Especially S mints that horn is sticking out too well. I noticed this detail on a lot of these fakes in a lot once. There are a couple of other things I look at besides what was pointed out, but am always leery of pointing out every diagnostic I have since it is known counterfeiters read US coin magazines and colelcting sites for tips on how to make their products "better".

I would say if the 1915 is not a fake, it was polished and tooled at some point.

 

I'm no expert here, but that horn looks too prominent, while the overall appearance seems a bit muddy. Something fishy about it anyway.