Spent some time going through a number of Buffalo nickels when I spotted THIS one. I know there are 3 legged and 3 1/2 legged buff nickels but I believe they center around the forelegs. What about a rear leg? The rear leg on this nickel disappears into the rim before the hoof. Every other nickel I’ve seen either presents the entire rear leg or at least down to the hoof. Opinions?
While your photos aren't that clear, it almost looks like I can see a D mint mark, but you may be able to clarify that in hand. It would be about a VG, weak strike, causing the hind leg to not clearly strike. In its condition, it would be hard to tell. In the "Guide Book of Buffalo and Jefferson Nickels" Bowers goes into detail about the strike quality and also covers the difficulty in adjusting the dies to fully strike so it would last longer. It seems that often the dies were given more space so they would last longer but created a "weak" strike. The devices closest to the rim often suffered the most. Even when it appears to be a strong strike, those details can be weak due to the spacing of the dies. Some examples 1935 D 1929
Not challenging you but how is the back of the leg going into the rim circulation wear? It appears to show the leg going down at the same angle as any other Buff nickel. I simply can not see how that would happen.
I think the rim on your coin has been flattened over time and has taking over some of the detail on the leg. If you look just below cents. You'll notice just how much wider the rim has become.
You are taking the wrong approach trying to explain errors coins. You should NEVER say “I can’t explain how this damage could occur, so it must be an error”. You ALWAYS need to explain how it could occur in the minting and die making process. The minting process is well documented so if you have a good understanding, you should be able to present a reasonable explanation. There are an unlimited number of things that can happen to a coin after it leaves the mint, so pin pointing the exact cause of damage may never be possible As others have said, your coin could not have left the mint looking like that. While some may find it interesting to speculate on what caused the damage/wear, in the grand scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter because it is not an error/variety. Hope this helps
An order for a coin to be an error, you, as the owner of the coin, must be able to explain how that error occurred and the error needs to be explained how it happened in the minting of the coin.
