Buffalo Nickel Values: Dates, Errors and Honest Expectations

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Short on time? The essentials

• The Buffalo nickel, also called the Indian Head nickel, was struck at Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco from 1913 through 1938. James Earle Fraser designed both sides.
• Every genuine Buffalo nickel weighs 5.000 grams, measures 21.21 mm across, and is 75 percent copper with 25 percent nickel.
• Two design types exist for 1913. Type 1 shows the bison standing on a raised mound. Type 2 moved the bison to flat ground and recessed the words FIVE CENTS to protect them from wear.
• The date sat on a high point of the design and wore off quickly on coins from the 1910s and 1920s. A worn coin with no visible date is a common finding, and its value is minimal.
• The lowest regular-issue mintage of the series is the 1926-S at 970,000 struck. It is the only date and mint mark in the series with a mintage below 1 million.
• The 1937-D three-legged Buffalo nickel is a verified die-polishing error. A Denver Mint pressman removed too much metal from a reverse die and eliminated a leg on the bison.
• Common circulated Buffalo nickels sell for a few cents to a couple of dollars. Sharp uncirculated coins and certified high grades from an independent grader trade for real premiums.
• Acid-restored dateless coins carry a permanent chemical mark and are treated as damaged by independent grading services. The acid raises a readable date, and it also caps the coin's collector value.

On this page

• The Buffalo nickel at a glance
• The design story: Fraser and the three sitters
• Verified physical specifications
• Type 1 and Type 2: the mid-1913 change
• The dateless-coin reality and acid restoration
• What common Buffalo nickels are actually worth
• Key dates that command a real premium
• The 1937-D three-legged variety
• How to identify what you actually have
• Melt-floor math on a Buffalo nickel
• What your Buffalo nickel is probably not
• Buffalo nickel FAQ

The Buffalo nickel at a glance

The Buffalo nickel, officially the Indian Head nickel, is a copper-and-nickel five-cent coin struck by the United States Mint from 1913 through 1938. The design left circulation only when Congress became free to authorize a replacement at the end of the mandatory 25-year design cycle.

The obverse shows the right profile of a Native American. The reverse shows an American bison. Both sides carry the initial F for the sculptor's surname below the date and below the animal.

The coin was produced at three mints. Philadelphia strikes carry no mint mark. Denver strikes carry a D. San Francisco strikes carry an S. The mint mark sits on the reverse, centered under the words FIVE CENTS.

The design story: Fraser and the three sitters

James Earle Fraser designed both faces of the coin in 1912. He was a student of Augustus Saint-Gaudens and had trained around the sculpture programs that produced other early 20th-century American coinage.

Fraser stated in 1938 that the obverse portrait was composed from three Native American sitters. He named Iron Tail of the Lakota Sioux, Two Moons of the Cheyenne, and Big Tree of the Kiowa. He noted the exact third sitter was hard to reconstruct from memory late in his life.

The bison model has been widely reported as Black Diamond, a bison held at the Central Park Zoo in New York. Fraser referred to a bison he studied in New York during interviews, though the exact identification of the animal has been debated by later historians.

Verified physical specifications

Every genuine Buffalo nickel matches the same measurable specifications. The table below is the identification baseline. Any coin sold as a Buffalo nickel that does not match these numbers is a fake, a novelty, an error worth independent verification, or a completely different coin.

Type 1 and Type 2: the mid-1913 change

The 1913 issue exists in two distinct reverse designs. Both were struck at all three mints in the same year, and both circulate as genuine mint products.

Type 1 shows the bison standing on a raised mound of earth. The words FIVE CENTS sit on that mound in slight relief. The design coined well but the raised denomination was a high point of the die and wore off quickly on circulated pieces.

Type 2, introduced later in 1913, moved the bison to a flat line of ground. The words FIVE CENTS were recessed into a straight exergue below that line. The change was intended to preserve the denomination through years of pocket wear. According to a National Archives study cited by numismatic historian David Lange, the changes to the Type 2 die actually shortened die life at the Mint.

All issues from 1913 onward through 1938 use the Type 2 reverse. The 1913 date exists in six recognized varieties across the three mints, split between Type 1 and Type 2 dies. The 1913-S Type 2 is the scarcest of that year.

The dateless-coin reality and acid restoration

The single biggest issue with the Buffalo nickel series is the disappearing date. The date sat on a high, exposed part of the obverse. Combined with the strike weaknesses of the 1910s and 1920s dies, the date on most circulated Buffalo nickels wore away within decades of pocket use.

A dateless Buffalo nickel is a common find in old jars and drawers. It is a real coin. It also has almost no collector value beyond the small premium a buyer will pay for a recognizable early 20th-century artifact.

A chemical restoration technique using ferric chloride (sold under brand names like Nic-A-Date) can raise a faint date on a dateless coin. The acid reacts with the copper differently in the recessed date area, which brings out a shadow of the numbers.

The restored date is useful for identification only. The acid also etches a permanent dark spot into the surface of the coin. Independent third-party grading services will not certify an acid-restored coin as a normal issue. They flag it as chemically altered, which caps its market value near the raw dateless-coin level.

What common Buffalo nickels are actually worth

The honest answer for the version most readers own is that a circulated Buffalo nickel from a common date is a low-priced coin. The design ran for 25 years across three mints. Hundreds of millions were produced. Enough survived that supply on the collector market is deep for common dates.

Four factors move the value on any Buffalo nickel above the near-face baseline.

Condition is the largest lever. A well-worn common date with a visible partial date trades for a few cents. A sharp, original, uncirculated coin certified by an independent grading service can trade for many multiples of that floor.

Date and mint mark matter. A common 1936 or 1937 Philadelphia coin sits at the bottom of the price ladder. A scarce date like 1913-S Type 2 or 1926-S carries a real premium even in low grades.

Strike quality matters for a series famous for weak strikes. Denver and San Francisco issues of the 1920s often show flat details on the bison's horn, tail, and shoulder. A sharply struck coin from those weak-strike years sells above a mushy example of the same date.

Authenticity is the final gate. A cleaned coin, a chemically restored dateless coin, or a counterfeit will always trade at a discount to an original, uncleaned specimen of the same grade.

Key dates that command a real premium

A handful of dates in the series carry structural scarcity. These are the coins that any serious buyer will look for first and pay real money to secure in original condition.

Dollar values on key dates are highly grade-sensitive and shift with the auction market. Use current listings from an established auction house or an established grading service population report to price a specific coin. Do not accept a verbal offer without a certified grade first.

The 1937-D three-legged variety

The 1937-D three-legged Buffalo nickel is the single most recognized error in the series. On this variety, the front right leg of the bison is missing or barely visible.

The error was caused by a Denver Mint pressman named Mr. Young, who according to numismatic historian Walter Breen was working to remove marks from a reverse die that had made accidental contact with the obverse die. In the polishing process, the pressman removed too much metal from the die surface and effectively erased one of the bison's legs.

Thousands of coins were struck from that die before Mint inspectors caught the problem and condemned it. Those coins entered circulation and were later identified as a distinct variety. Counterfeits are widespread. Any 1937-D coin sold as three-legged should carry certification from an independent third-party grading service before purchase.

How to identify what you actually have

The steps below are the sequence a serious hobbyist runs on a Buffalo nickel found in a jar, a drawer, or an inherited collection. Follow them in order before treating the coin as anything more than a low-value curiosity.

1. Confirm the coin is a Buffalo nickel. The obverse shows the right profile of a Native American with the word LIBERTY to the right. The reverse shows a standing bison. If either side shows a different design, the coin is a different type.
2. Weigh the coin on a jewelry scale. A genuine Buffalo nickel weighs 5.000 grams. A digital scale that reads to two decimal places is enough. A weight far outside 4.9 to 5.1 grams points to a fake or a damaged planchet.
3. Check the date and the mint mark. The date sits below the profile on the obverse. The mint mark, if any, sits centered under the words FIVE CENTS on the reverse. A missing mint mark means Philadelphia. A worn or invisible date drops the coin to the common-lot pile.
4. Look for the key-date candidates. Check for 1913-S Type 2, 1918-D with a possible overdate, 1921-S, 1926-S, and any 1937-D that appears to have a three-legged bison. Any of those candidates deserves a closer look under magnification.
5. Inspect the coin surfaces under magnification. Look for tooling marks, chemical residue, or plating. An etched dark patch behind the date is the signature of ferric chloride acid restoration. Any of those signs will affect what a serious buyer will pay.
6. Do not clean the coin. Any polishing, dipping, or scrubbing lowers the grade an independent grader will assign. Cleaning a coin can drop its value by orders of magnitude. Preserve the coin exactly as found.
7. Submit high-value candidates to an independent grading service. Only a certified authentication from an established grader carries weight in the marketplace on a key date, a mint-state common date, or a suspected error. Verbal appraisals and photo opinions do not.

Melt-floor math on a Buffalo nickel

What your Buffalo nickel is probably not

Buffalo nickel FAQ

Sources

1. Wikipedia, Buffalo nickel. Series 1913 to 1938, designer James Earle Fraser, obverse composite portrait based on Iron Tail (Sioux), Two Moons (Cheyenne) and Big Tree (Kiowa), reverse bison design, three-mint production (Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco), Type I mound and Type II line reverse change during 1913, 1926-S lowest regular-issue mintage at 970,000, and the 1937-D three-legged die-polishing error attributed to a Denver Mint pressman named Mr. Young in the account by Walter Breen. Article cites the U.S. Mint composition record. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_nickel. Checked August 2026.
2. Wikipedia, Nickel (United States coin). Confirms the 5.000 gram mass, 21.21 mm diameter, and 75 percent copper with 25 percent nickel composition standard for regular-issue United States five-cent coins across the Buffalo and Jefferson designs. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_(United_States_coin). Checked August 2026.
3. United States Mint, Coin Specifications and Historical Composition. Reference for the standard 5.000 gram weight, 21.21 mm diameter, and the 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel composition on five-cent United States coins. usmint.gov/learn/history-and-artistry. Checked August 2026.
4. Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. 18 U.S. Code section 331: Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins. Federal statute cited by the U.S. Mint for the enforcement framework on defacing or fraudulently altering U.S. coins. law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/331. Checked August 2026.
5. Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. 31 CFR Part 82: Prohibition on the Exportation, Melting, or Treatment of 5-Cent and One-Cent Coins. Treasury regulation prohibiting the melting of United States nickels and cents for their metal content. ecfr.gov/current/title-31/subtitle-B/chapter-I/part-82. Checked August 2026.
6. Internal Revenue Code section 408(m) and section 1(h)(4). Governs the collectibles tax treatment on gains from coin sales outside a retirement account. Office of the Law Revision Counsel. uscode.house.gov. Checked August 2026.

By the Harry’s Coins Editorial team. Last reviewed August 2026.