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Message:: [QUOTE="900fine, post: 1454799, member: 6036"]The other think to consider is this : recall the role President Roosevelt had in the renaissance of American coinage in the early 20th century. He knew this great nation deserved great coinage, and he demanded nothing short of excellence. The Saint-Gaudens $20 was the crowning glory, along with the Indian $10 (also designed by Saint-Gaudens), but the Buffalo 5c was part of the movement as well. With that in mind, the Mint wanted to put their best foot forward on these new-fangled Buffalo 5c. In general, there are many well made, well struck coins, but high relief coins like these require more striking pressure so the dies wear out faster. That's too bad, because the popularity of these coins required the Mint to work overtime to meet the demand, so they often used worn-out dies after they should have been retired. For these reasons, there is a great deal of variance in quality as made ! It's not only about preservation after the Mint, it's also about how well-made was it by the Mint. The coins in the OP are weakly struck, possibly from worn dies.[/QUOTE]