1913-S Type 2 Buffalo Nickel – Unusual Reverse Diagnostics

[OverPolished]

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting to the forum. Thank you for providing this resource.

I am preparing a raw 1913-S Type 2 Buffalo Nickel to possibly send in to ANACS because of some unusual features on the reverse. Before initiating the paperwork, I wanted to present the coin to the forum to get your take and collective wisdom.

While the coin displays a heavily weakened / "ghosted" hind leg (which I recognize is notable in its own right, especially for a 1913-S Type 2 Nickel), the most striking anomaly is located across the top reverse.

The tops of the letters of "STATES OF AMER" appear to be consistently cut off parallel to the rim, in such a way that this large set of letters is the same truncated height (usually leaving faint remaining parts of the letters showing). Additionally, the "ER" in AMERICA shows distinct distortion. The reverse rim directly adjacent to these letters remains fully struck and sharp, so my working assumption is that this is not normal wear. Nor does it immediately look like a typical struck-through-grease error due to the sharpness of the truncation.

I have attached full photos of the obverse and reverse and close-up photos of these unusual reverse elements.

I would love to get the community's feedback on whether die abrasion is the cause of this pretty extreme, localized truncation of the legend letters, how this all correlates with the official CONECA Master Listings of Die Varieties, and if this specific combination of features matches an existing indexed CONECA die state.

Thank you in advance for your time and expertise!

[MintErrors]

In my opinion, it almost looks like coin counter damage. It may have been stuck in a machine going in circles forever, and it added a deep line around most of the coin. To me, from what I can see of the coin from the photos provided, it looks like post mint damage, some was done to the coin after it left the US Mint.

If there is a halo style ring around the coin, about the same distace away from the rim, this is probably what it is. It sheared away parts of the devices.

IF, this would have been be an error, not a variety. But I see it as a damaged coin. Varieties are commonly found in multiples, a repetative condition with the making of the die, and it produces many of the same variety. Errors are typically unique.

[OverPolished]

Thank you for that perspective. I appreciate the suggestion to look closely into potential coin counter damage as a cause.

Following your note, I mapped out the perimeter to see how a circular path lines up. While there are a few sporadic areas of flatness near the rim — such as the tops of the E and D in UNITED, and the bottom of the S (and to a much lesser extent the F) in FIVE CENTS — they seem isolated rather than connecting into a single, continuous deep line around the majority of the coin. Other sections near the rim, such as the buffalo's head, tail area, and the areas where the mound above FIVE CENTS meets the rim, appear clear of any mechanical groove or scoring (see attached photos). Because the truncation from STATES through AMER drops so cleanly into a flat field with a sharp shelf (rather than a rough, plowed trench), it seems structurally different from typical machine damage.

You make an excellent point regarding the distinction between unique damage and repeating varieties. However, before we set the coin aside, I want to be absolutely thorough in checking if these diagnostics could represent an extreme mint-made condition.

To that end, does anyone on the forum know if there are any documented 1913-S Type 2 varieties or indexed CONECA die states that exhibit severe die abrasion or similar reverse diagnostics? At the very least, is there a definitive 3 1/2-legged 1913-S variety? The combination of the weak hind leg and the truncated legend makes me wonder if this could be an extreme or unlisted abraded die state. I would be very grateful if anyone with access to the official CONECA Master Listings could check to see if anything of relevance has ever been recorded.

[MintErrors]

VarietyVista.com might show some pups or markers but those are tied to known varieties.

Error-ref.com is an error coin related website with hundreds of examples.

You have to realize, with coin counter machines, its not an exact science how these coins will end up looking. If the coin devices prohibit the coin from traveling in a circle, the it either bounces over the section, leaving a heavy gouge in a device or, the coin will end up getting bound or stuck in the machine. Some times these coin counting machines can really mess up a coin.

There are coin wrapping machines that have scraped off many of the devices near the rim as well.

This coin appears it was struck normally. Exactly what happened to it after, only the coin and the action which caused it to look this way knows what went on and the coin is not talking. A Working die would not look like this. There would be hundred to thousands of coins available with the same sort of look.

When a coin hits circulation, it is subject to all sorts of damage both intentional and unintentional.

If you want a CONECA staff member to look over this coin, you can create a post in the CONECA SERVIES area of this forum. Examinations are for errors, Attributions are for varieties.

[OverPolished]

I appreciate the added context regarding how a bouncing machine can leave localized, erratic damage. Even when looking at the coin through that lens, though, a mechanical post-mint theory still leaves a critical open question. Specifically, it doesn't account for the buffalo's hind leg. Even an unpredictable machine head striking the outer perimeter, but not the rim, of the coin wouldn't seamlessly erase half of a centralized leg while leaving the surrounding fields smooth, level, and flat. The concurrent presence of both a truncated upper legend and a missing partial leg is what originally made me question if an over-polished or heavily abraded die was at play — similar to how the 1913 Philadelphia Type 1 3 1/2-legged variety (FS-901) was created.

I actually spent some time studying VarietyVista before posting here. Indeed, it's the resource that brought me to this forum. While it is an incredible reference for design variants, DDOs, DDRs, and RPMs, its online 1913-S listings are limited to a single RPM variety, and the site doesn't index abraded die states for the Buffalo nickel series. So, VarietyVista, which makes no reference to the well-known 1936-D 3 1/2-legged variety or the 3-legged 1937-D variety, doesn't really shed light (either way) on what is going on here with this 1913-S Type 2 nickel. I also reviewed Error-Ref, which is a phenomenal educational resource for understanding the mechanics of error types, but as a conceptual guide rather than a date-specific coin catalog, it doesn't index whether this specific combination has been recorded for a 1913-S. (To its credit, it does make mention of the 1936-D and 1937-D varieties, but it doesn't purport to list all of the 3 1/2 leg varieties in the Buffalo nickel series.)

Because Dr. Wiles notes on the VarietyVista homepage that this general forum is the recommended place to vet a coin and establish a community consensus before moving toward an in-hand assessment, I’d like to keep this thread active here for a bit. I remain very curious if any other forum members have encountered an aggressively abraded or late die state for the 1913-S reverse that shares these concurrent diagnostics (or even just one of them).