Three cent nickel question

I have been searching for three cent nickels lately and ran across this 1879 on ebay, I wanted some opinions on this coin. The reverse looks a little funny to me.
Any thoughts?

 

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Looks normal to me but probably cleaned at some point. Not unusual there.

 

Abrasively cleaned.

 

What bothers me is at the lower portion of the coin. the ribbon and leaves look weak, but from the bottm up, not a weak strike. Compare the first photo with this 76.

 

Maybe an excessively polished die.

 

IMO the first coin has been cleaned, and not very gently.
But the strike is not too bad.
Remember it's a small coin in a hard alloy.
Not much metal to push around to fill the die, and what there was didn't push easily.
I'd label it an average strike.

The second coin is a much more normal strike.
Note the weakness in the first "I" of the "III".
That's a standard weak area.
Liberty's cheek is on the other side what was a large area to fill, so the first "I" suffered from flatness.
Actually I think the strike on that coin is slightly above average.

I spent a LOT of time looking for a fully struck 3-cent nickel.
And when I found one it cost me plenty.
I saw a MS-66 that wasn't this good.

 

That is one nice coin!!:thumb: I would love to have one as nice.
Do you think the effect on the lower portion is from over polishing the die, (which I hadn't thout of till laskandino mentioned it). The strike itself is decent because the III lines show well.
I have seen fakes where the design kind of dissappears in the fiels like this one.

 

I hesitate on this opinion only because of I do not have any knowledge on this type,but....it looks to me as if someone started to clean it: harshly across bottom then decided abrasion to rough and then quit. I see some horizontal scratches. and top while maybe also cleaned at one time, does not seem to add up. IMHO:kewl:

 

I suspect the weakness you speak of is either a misaligned die or overzealous die polishing.

 

Here's a proof to compare it to:

 

First coin:
Cleaned harshly I'm afraid, and not the best of strikes. Would keep looking if I were you man. Best of luck. :thumb:

Proof:
Beautiful. :thumb:

Phoenix

 

This is my thinking.

 

Most likely.

 

Misaligned die and harsh cleaning IMO. Stunning Proof and MS65! Wow!:thumb:

Bruce

 

I'm thinking overpolished die, the denticals are too strong at the bottom for it to be a misaligned die. I wouldn't think you could almost get the rim to strike up completely, not fill the shallowest areas in the die, and yet fill the deep areas. Those shallow areas of the ribbon which are missing would have to fill before the higher relief folds did. They must have been missing from the die itself.

 

That seems like the most likely. I think i'll wait for a better coin. Besides the price is getting a little steep on this one.