1938-D Buffalo with weird head abrasions...
Meltdown
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Curious just what is going on with the obverse. Is this a strike issue? Worn dies? There is scattered abrasion on the neck, across the hair and from the temple down below the eye then into the nose.
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Comments
Because the Mint knew that the Jefferson Nickel was coming out soon, the Engraving Department made as few 1938 Indian Head dies as possible and overused them, causing excessive die wear.
Bummer to, its a decent looking coin. It can be retracting at times
There enough really nice 1938-D Buffaloes to make the later die state pieces less desirable.
I would add that the prime reason why the mint dumped the Buffalo Nickel design almost as soon as it could, just after 25 years was that it was too hard on the dies. Dies are expensive and shortened die life is a problem.
The Buffalo Nickel had been a problem ever since it was first released in 1913. The date wear problem was never really solved after many attempts at different solutions.
That was only one of many "headaches" the Mint got from the coin so yes, ending the series as soon as possible was the only real solution.
My choice for a nice Buff would be the 1921 because the Mint did a one year only refresh that enhanced the knot detail on Iron Tail.
To this day, the enhancement was so strong that dateless 1921 Buffs could be picked out and identified from all the other dates.
Pete
Why did it matter to the mint if the date wore down.
Made them look incompetent, I guess.