Buffalo Nickels (1913-1938)

In 1913 the nickel five-cent piece was redesigned, and James E. Fraser's Indian motif took the place of the Liberty issue. The obverse featured the portrait of an American Indian, while the reverse showed a standing bison. In popular parlance the issue became known as the Buffalo nickel.

Two main design types were produced of the Buffalo nickel, the first being limited to early 1913 issues with the buffalo (bison) standing on a raised mound and the second, with the buffalo standing on a plain or a line, employed on all later issues through the end of the series in 1938. It proved difficult for the various mints to strike Buffalo nickels with sharp detail, as the design was in high relief, and many pieces seen today, particularly those struck at the Denver Mint in the mid-1920s, are apt to be poorly defined on the higher spots.

The sculpted appearance of Buffalo nickels and their irregular surfaces combine to make grading difficult, and nowhere else in numismatics are grading opinions apt to differ more widely than in the Buffalo series. Before embarking on a collection of Buffalo nickels I recommend studying many pieces and gaining acquaintance with grading and differences in striking sharpness.

All Buffalo nickels minted from 1913 through 1938 are available, although in high grades a number of the branch mint issues, especially of the decade 1915-1925, are rare. The key issue in the series is an overdate, 1918/7-D, of which only a handful exist in Mint State. Even well worn coins are rare. In sharply struck MS-65 grade the 1926-D is a major rarity, although in weakly struck MS-65 preservation it is common.

Toward the end of the series two curious varieties were produced. The first is the 3 Legged issue, which has the front leg of the buffalo missing, due to the grinding down or resurfacing of a production die. The second is the 1938-D/S, with a D mintmark over a previous S. In the year 1938 it was recognized that the Buffalo nickel would be discontinued, and it was also known that no pieces would be struck that year at the San Francisco Mint. Some reverse dies with S mintmarks had been made earlier at the Philadelphia Mint (where all dies for branch mints are produced), and it was decided not to waste them. D mintmarks were stamped over the previous S mintmarks, and the dies were shipped to Denver to create 1938-D/S nickels. Not until 1961 did collectors notice that such an "overmintmark" had been created, for the undertype S had not been noticed!