Buffalo Nickels

America's Most Beautiful Nickel

James Earle Fraser's Design — A Portrait of the American West at Its Moment of Passing

The Buffalo Nickel — properly known as the Indian Head nickel — stands apart from every other coin in American numismatics not merely as a collectible, but as a work of art that captured the spirit of a vanishing America with extraordinary conviction. James Earle Fraser, the sculptor and designer who created it, understood that he was working at a historical threshold: the great bison herds that had shaped the ecology and culture of the American Great Plains had been almost entirely destroyed within living memory, and the Native American peoples whose civilization had been built around them had been dispossessed within the lifetime of men still alive in 1912. Fraser's response to that history was a coin that refused the easy allegorical comfort of earlier American designs — no goddesses, no laurel wreaths, no neoclassical pretense. Instead he gave the nation a composite portrait of Native American dignity and a bison so powerful and three-dimensional that coinage dies could barely contain it.

The Buffalo Nickel was struck continuously from 1913 through 1938 — twenty-five years of production at the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints that produced an extraordinary range of collectible issues: two distinct design types in the first year alone, a series of low-mintage key dates concentrated in the early 1920s, major overdate and doubled die varieties, and one of the most famous mint errors in American coinage history. Fraser's design was also famously difficult to strike properly — the high-relief bison required significant die pressure, leading to weakness in strikes that plagues even uncirculated examples and gives the certified gem Buffalo Nickel market its complexity and depth. A fully struck Buffalo Nickel in gem uncirculated condition, with sharp horn, full brow, and intact date, is genuinely rare regardless of the specific date — and commands premiums that reflect that rarity.

Fraser's Models — Who Was on the Coin?

The Native American Portrait & the Bronx Zoo Bison

The obverse of the Buffalo Nickel presents one of the most discussed subjects in American numismatic history: whose portrait did Fraser actually use? Fraser himself stated consistently that the Indian Head was a composite — a synthesis of features sketched from multiple Native American subjects rather than a portrait of any single individual. The chiefs most commonly identified as sources include Iron Tail (Oglala Lakota), Two Moons (Northern Cheyenne), and possibly Big Tree (Kiowa), though Fraser's own accounts varied over the years and the historical record does not definitively resolve the question. What is certain is that Fraser approached the commission with genuine respect and artistic seriousness, seeking to create a dignified and authentic representation of Native American physiognomy rather than a romanticized stereotype. The result — a strong, weathered profile in a full war bonnet — remains one of the most compelling portrait coins ever produced by the United States Mint.

The reverse bison presents fewer historical mysteries: Fraser's primary model was widely identified as Black Diamond, an American bison that had been a resident of the Central Park Zoo (which later became the Bronx Zoo) and was a well-known attraction in New York City in the early 1900s. Fraser made numerous sketches of Black Diamond at the zoo before creating the reverse design. The bison depicted — massive, slightly hunched at the shoulder, projecting enormous weight and presence — captures the animal's distinctive profile more successfully than any previous attempt to put an American bison on a coin. The Type 1 reverse, with the bison standing on a raised mound, created an even more dramatic three-dimensional effect than the later Type 2 flat-ground version, but the mound's raised surface caused the denomination to wear away almost immediately in circulation — leading the Mint to modify the design within months of the first strikes.

Type 1 vs. Type 2 — The First-Year Design Change

1913 Mound Type vs. 1913 Flat Ground — and Why It Matters for Collectors

The Buffalo Nickel's first year of production, 1913, produced two distinct reverse types — a design change implemented so quickly that both types were struck at all three mints (Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco) within the same year. The Type 1 (also called the "raised mound" or "mound type") features the bison standing on a sculptural raised ground line, with the denomination FIVE CENTS appearing on the mound itself in relatively high relief. The visual effect is dramatic and sculptural — but it was also a practical disaster. The denomination wore away almost immediately in pocket change, leaving coins that could not be identified as five-cent pieces. The Mint responded by recessing the denomination into the design and eliminating the mound in favor of a flat, recessed ground line — the Type 2 that would be used for the remainder of the series through 1938.

For collectors, the 1913 Type 1 / Type 2 distinction creates one of the most interesting single-year type sets in American numismatics — six coins total (1913-P, 1913-D, and 1913-S in both types) that represent the entire first year of the series. Type 1 coins from all three mints are generally more available in circulated grades than their Type 2 counterparts because the Type 2 design change was made quickly, meaning the Philadelphia Type 2 has a considerably lower mintage than the Type 1 even though both were struck in the same year. The 1913-S Type 2 is the most significant key date in this group — its mintage of only 1,209,000 pieces makes it the rarest first-year issue and a genuine key date across all grade levels.

Buffalo Nickel Key Dates at a Glance

Values, Mintages & What to Expect at Each Grade Level

The 1937-D Three-Legged Buffalo

America's Most Famous Mint Error Nickel — and the Counterfeits That Follow It

The 1937-D Three-Legged Buffalo Nickel is the most famous error coin in the Buffalo Nickel series and one of the most widely recognized mint errors in all of American numismatics. Its origin is straightforward: a die that had become damaged or over-polished at the Denver Mint in 1937 had the front right leg of the bison ground away, leaving the coin with only three visible legs and a peculiar, characteristic "wisps" of die metal beneath the bison's belly where the leg had been. The error was not caught immediately, and an unknown but relatively small number of 1937-D nickels were struck from this defective die before it was retired. Current estimates suggest somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 Three-Legged examples survive today — making it scarce but not impossibly rare, and accessible in circulated grades to collectors willing to pay the significant premium it commands at every grade level.

The Three-Legged Buffalo is also the most counterfeited coin in the Buffalo Nickel series. The most common alteration technique is removing the front leg from a normal 1937-D nickel using an abrasive tool — a manipulation that can be detected by the absence of the characteristic die "wisps" beneath the belly that appear only on genuine struck examples, and by the generally disturbed surface around the missing leg area. A genuine Three-Legged Buffalo will show smooth, natural die surface in the area of the removed leg, with the distinctive trailing wisps visible beneath the bison's belly. PCGS and NGC certification is not merely recommended for Three-Legged Buffalo purchases — it is essential. No raw, ungraded Three-Legged Buffalo above Good condition should be purchased without expert in-hand examination by a specialist familiar with the variety's diagnostics.

Building a Buffalo Nickel Collection

Full Date Sets, Type Sets & the Challenge of Strike Quality

Building a complete date-and-mint-mark set of Buffalo Nickels is one of the classic long-term collecting projects in American numismatics — challenging enough to provide real satisfaction when completed, accessible enough that a dedicated collector can make meaningful progress over time without unlimited resources. The series contains 64 distinct date-and-mint combinations across the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints from 1913 through 1938, with the 1913 Type 1 and Type 2 varieties adding six more coins if the collector chooses to include both types. In Good to Very Good grades, most common-date Buffalo Nickels trade for $3–$15 each — meaning the bulk of a date set can be assembled relatively economically, with costs concentrated on the handful of genuine key dates (1913-S Type 2, 1926-S, 1921-S, 1931-S) and semi-key dates (1914-D, 1919-D, 1919-S, 1920-D) that define the series.

The special challenge of Buffalo Nickel collecting that distinguishes it from most other U.S. series is the date legibility problem. Buffalo Nickels were struck with the date in a recessed area that wore rapidly in circulation, leaving millions of coins with partially or fully worn-away dates. A coin with a full, sharp, readable date — regardless of the specific year — is worth meaningfully more than a dateless example, and in certain grades a fully struck date with clear mintmark can be the primary driver of a coin's premium. Collectors and dealers use the date as a primary quality filter: a Buffalo Nickel described as "full date" commands a specific premium over examples with weak or partial dates, even when the rest of the coin's surface preservation is otherwise equivalent. A dateless Buffalo Nickel, while interesting historically, has essentially no numismatic value beyond the metal content.

The 1916 Doubled Die Obverse — Buffalo Nickel's Hidden Rarity

Strong Doubling on the Date & Design Elements — A Variety Most Collectors Overlook

While the 1937-D Three-Legged Buffalo gets most of the attention in error-variety discussions of the Buffalo Nickel series, the 1916 Doubled Die Obverse is arguably the more significant variety from a pure rarity standpoint. The doubling on the 1916 DDO is strong and clearly visible on the date (particularly the 6) and on the Indian Head's design elements — visible without magnification in Fine and better grades. Mintage data for the variety has never been established; it is clearly far rarer than the Three-Legged Buffalo in terms of known examples, but it has historically received less collector publicity and therefore sometimes trades at prices that understate its actual scarcity. PCGS and NGC both attribute the 1916 DDO through their VarietyPlus programs, and attributed, certified examples in Fine to Very Fine grades represent excellent long-term value within the Buffalo Nickel series.

Beyond the major varieties, Buffalo Nickel collectors pursuing a deep knowledge of the series will encounter a rich landscape of die varieties catalogued by specialists in the field. The 1935 Doubled Die Obverse shows strong doubling in Fine grades. Multiple die varieties exist for high-production years like 1936 Philadelphia. The 1938-D/D (repunched mintmark) and 1938-D/S (Denver mintmark punched over a San Francisco S) are accessible and actively collected late-date varieties. The 1936-D "Three-and-a-Half Legs" variety — where the leg is partially but not fully removed compared to the fully three-legged 1937-D — is an interesting transitional variety that attracts collectors who want a Three-Legged-adjacent coin at lower cost than the famous error.