United States Buffalo Nickels
1913–1938 • Type 1 & Type 2 • The Legendary 1937-D Three-Legged Buffalo
Buffalo Nickel Value Guide
Key Dates and Typical Values by Grade
| Date / Type | Mintage | Good (G-4) | VF-20 | MS-63+ | Shop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1913 Type 1 (raised ground) | ~30,993,520 | $10 | $25 | $200+ | Shop |
| 1913 Type 2 (recessed ground) | Varies | $8 | $20 | $150+ | Shop |
| 1913-S Type 2 | 1,209,000 | $150+ | $400+ | $3,000+ | Shop |
| Common date (1914–1936) | Varies | $1 | $3 | $50+ | Shop |
| 1918/7-D Overdate | Unknown (rare) | $2,000+ | $8,000+ | $50,000 – $100,000+ | Shop |
| 1926-S — Lowest Mintage | 970,000 | $150+ | $800+ | $15,000 – $25,000+ | Shop |
| 1937-D Three-Legged | ~20,000 (est.) | $400 – $50,000+ | $99,875+ record | Shop | |
Buffalo nickels rank among the most widely collected American coins, partly because common dates still cost only a few dollars. Even so, a handful of key dates and errors push values into five and even six figures. The table above covers the dates that matter most, and you can compare them against every other U.S. series in our coin price guide.
For a full date-by-date breakdown, see the Buffalo nickel value chart. If you already have a coin in hand, our What's My Coin Worth guide walks you through identifying the date, mint mark, and grade before you price it.
Origins of the Buffalo Nickel
The Buffalo Nickel — officially the Indian Head Nickel — replaced the Liberty Head design in 1913, part of the broader early-20th-century push toward more distinctly American coin imagery. Sculptor James Earle Fraser designed the coin, reportedly composing the obverse Native American portrait as a composite of several individuals rather than a single sitter, and modeling the reverse bison after Black Diamond, a bison who lived at the New York Central Park Zoo (though this attribution has some competing accounts). The result — a proud Native American profile paired with a powerful, naturalistic bison — is widely regarded as one of the most distinctly American coin designs ever produced.
The series ran for 25 years, struck at Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco, in a hard 75% copper / 25% nickel alloy that proved notoriously difficult on Mint dies — the coin's high-relief design wore dies down at an unusually rapid rate throughout the series' entire run, contributing directly to some of its most famous errors and varieties. The Buffalo Nickel was replaced by the Jefferson Nickel in 1938.
Type 1 and Type 2 — A Genuine Design Flaw
The original 1913 design, now called Type 1, placed the bison standing on a raised mound of earth — with the denomination "FIVE CENTS" struck directly onto that raised ground. This wasn't merely a stylistic choice gone wrong; it was a genuine functional flaw. The raised mound sat at one of the highest points of relief on the coin, meaning "FIVE CENTS" wore away from ordinary circulation almost immediately, leaving coins that were difficult to identify by denomination after only modest use — a real problem for a coin meant to circulate widely.
The Mint corrected this within 1913 itself, introducing the Type 2 design with the ground recessed into a straight line beneath the bison, moving the denomination to this more protected, lower-relief area. Because both types were struck in 1913 across multiple mints, "1913 Type 1" and "1913 Type 2" are collected as genuinely distinct coins — including the 1913-S Type 2, a legitimate key date with just 1,209,000 struck, considerably scarcer than its Type 1 counterpart from the same mint and year.
The 1937-D Three-Legged Buffalo
The single most famous error in the entire Buffalo Nickel series happened almost by accident at the Denver Mint in 1937. When two dies clash together without a coin between them during production, they leave faint impression marks on each other's surfaces — a routine problem normally corrected by lightly polishing the affected die. In this case, a Mint employee over-polished the reverse die attempting to remove clash marks near the bison's front legs, inadvertently grinding away the animal's entire right front leg in the process. The Mint noticed the damage but, rather than discarding the die immediately, continued using it — producing an unknown but limited run of Buffalo Nickels missing a leg entirely.
Genuine examples show a second, related diagnostic beyond the missing leg: the same over-polishing also weakened the "E PLURIBUS UNUM" motto above the bison, giving it a soft, "moth-eaten" appearance rather than crisp lettering. Because this variety is, in PCGS's own words, "one of the most famous and most important coins of the 20th century," it has become the single most commonly counterfeited error coin in American numismatics — collectors should verify all identifying diagnostics together (the missing leg, the weakened motto, and the coin's overall soft, polished appearance) and rely on PCGS or NGC certification for any significant purchase, since convincing fakes are widely sold, including mass-produced copies explicitly marketed as replicas online.
Buffalo Nickel Key Dates and Errors
1937-D Three-Legged
1918/7-D Overdate
1926-S — Lowest Mintage
1913-S Type 2
1921-S & 1924-S
1938-D/S Mint Mark Variety
Related Coin Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the 1937-D Three-Legged Buffalo Nickel?
How can I tell a genuine 1937-D Three-Legged from a fake or a worn regular nickel?
What is the difference between 1913 Type 1 and Type 2 Buffalo Nickels?
What is the 1918/7-D overdate?
What is the lowest-mintage Buffalo Nickel?
What is a good entry point for collecting Buffalo Nickels?
A complete study of Buffalo nickels (1913–1938) and Jefferson nickels (1938 to date), richly illustrated in full color with high-resolution enlargements for overdates and varieties.
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