FREE: BUFFALO HEAD NICKELS: 1923, 1924, 1927, 1930

The listing, BUFFALO HEAD NICKELS: 1923, 1924, 1927, 1930 has ended.

The Buffalo head nickel is one of the most celebrated coins among collectors. Designed in 1913 by naturalist James Earle Fraser, this coin was the first U.S. coin to feature an animal other than the bald eagle. On the obverse side, the coin's depiction of a Native American is a composite of three Native American portraits. This coin ran from 1913 to 1938, and over one billion Buffalo head nickels were minted during this time. Historical ironies regarding the minting of the Buffalo head nickel abound. These coins depict the Native American and buffaloes as esteemed and proud. However, the actions of the U.S. government during the period from 1913 to 1938 were anything but conservationist! The government eroded the few remaining freedoms of Native Americans, and hunters decimated wild buffalo populations. Historical ironies aside, however, the coin maintains a unique fascination among collectors. The first minting during 1913 had to be stopped because the raised buffalo on the coin was giving the minting machines trouble. Production on a second version of the buffalo nickel, called the Type II series, began later in that year and featured the buffalo alone on a field. Rarities exist. One of the most valuable and hard to find variations is the 1918/7-D overdate mistake. Another curiosity is the 1937 D three-legged Buffalo. A dye involved in the minting process failed, and one of the Buffalo's legs was left out. This buffalo is a comical oddity and also an extremely valuable collector's piece. The "F" on the front of the coin is the designer's initial, not a mint mark, and is usually worn off, but is detectable on the 1927 coin, which also has a circular die cut on 1/3rd of the coin running through "LIBERTY". From 1866 on, 5-cent coins were "cupronickel": 75/25 ratio of copper (alloys) to nickel. No silver nickels were made.