If you look close you can see this happens during mint not from being circulated. That's my opinion what's yours?, I want to know if I should get it graded.
I grade your Buffalo AG-03 (About Good) Over 6 million 1925-S nickels minted. Professional Grading would cost more than it's value.
No it doesn't happen at the mint. The position and height of the date on the Buffalo and Standing Liberty Quarter was in an area that received a lot of wear and the dates disappeared quickly. The SLQ made some changes to try and fix that. I don't think the Buffs did that.
1 Not dateless, it is clearly a 1925 S 2. Heavily worn. 3. Polished to DEATH after it got worn down. If it hadn't been polished it probably would have been worth a dollar or two. As it is now, 10 to 15 cents.
My suggestion is that you send it in for certification and grading. No matter what you get back, it will be a lesson that you can share with others.
Not worth grading. Yes the 25-S is a good coin, but it can't straight grade as it appears polished. And in this condition you will never recoup the cost.
Wish I could stuff the ballot box with a bunch of no votes to help keep @Sumzmommy from tossing good money after bad. Steve
I just looked at the op's photos again. I now remember a good number of years ago that I've seen this before. You take a well worn Buffalo Nickel and polish it. You have a great coin for making it into a piece of jewelry. The one I saw was a necklace over 25 years ago when I lived in Washington State. My LCS had it in his store. It wasn't for sale as he used it to help educate his customers.