Buffalo Nickel Value Guide

What Is a Buffalo Nickel?

The Buffalo nickel is the popular name for the five-cent coin the United States Mint produced from 1913 through 1938. Its official designation is the Indian Head nickel, and both names refer to exactly the same coin — you will see the two terms used interchangeably in price guides, auction catalogs, and dealer inventories. The coin replaced the Liberty Head nickel, sometimes called the V nickel, which had been in production since 1883. When the Buffalo nickel was itself retired in 1938, it gave way to the Jefferson nickel, which remains in production today.

The design came from sculptor James Earle Fraser, who had a long interest in the American West and in Native American subjects. Fraser submitted his design as part of a broader effort during the early twentieth century to replace what many reformers considered artistically mediocre coinage with something more distinctly American in character. His proposal featured a right-facing profile of a Native American man on the obverse and an American bison on the reverse — subjects that, in Fraser’s view, captured something essential about the continent’s natural and cultural heritage. The Mint approved the design, and production began in 1913 at all three operating mint facilities: Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco.

The coin measures 21.2 millimeters in diameter, has a plain (smooth) edge, and is composed of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel — the same alloy used in United States nickels today. The mint mark, when present, appears on the reverse below the words FIVE CENTS. Philadelphia-minted coins carry no mint mark; Denver coins are identified by a D, and San Francisco coins by an S. These mint mark distinctions matter enormously for value, because mintages varied dramatically from facility to facility, and some branch-mint issues are far scarcer than their Philadelphia counterparts.

The series ran for twenty-five years and spans several distinct collecting challenges, from the two design types introduced in 1913 to a handful of low-mintage dates and at least two major varieties that command significant premiums. For anyone new to the series, those distinctions are worth understanding before drawing conclusions about what a particular coin might be worth.

Who Is on the Buffalo Nickel?

The portrait on the obverse of the Buffalo nickel is one of the most asked-about subjects in American numismatics, and the answer is more nuanced than a simple name. James Earle Fraser consistently described the image as a composite portrait — a likeness assembled from sketches he made of several different Native American men rather than a precise rendering of any single individual. Fraser named three men he said had contributed to the portrait: Iron Tail (Oglala Lakota), Two Moons (Northern Cheyenne), and John Big Tree (Seneca). Over the decades, other names have been proposed and debated by historians, but Fraser’s own account points to a composite, and no single model has ever been definitively confirmed as the sole source for the design.

The figure faces right and is shown in profile, wearing a feathered headdress. The word LIBERTY appears to the right of the portrait, and the date sits below it on the coin’s obverse field — a placement detail that, as discussed later in this guide, has significant consequences for how well the date survives circulation. The inscription IN GOD WE TRUST does not appear on the obverse of the Buffalo nickel; it was added to the reverse in later years of the series after Congress mandated its inclusion on all U.S. coinage.

The reverse depicts an American bison standing in left-facing profile. The bison on the coin is popularly associated with Black Diamond, a bison that lived at the Central Park Zoo in New York City during Fraser’s era, and Fraser did reportedly sketch animals at that zoo during the design process. Whether Black Diamond was the exclusive model for the reverse or simply one of several references is, like the question of the obverse portrait, a matter that numismatic historians have debated without a fully settled conclusion. What is not in doubt is that Fraser chose the bison as a deliberate symbol of the American continent — an animal that had been brought near extinction in the nineteenth century and carried deep significance for the Native peoples whose portrait shares the coin’s obverse.

The reverse also carries the inscriptions E PLURIBUS UNUM, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and FIVE CENTS, along with the mint mark on branch-mint issues. The bold, high-relief sculptural quality of both the portrait and the bison gives the Buffalo nickel its enduring visual power — and also contributes to the wear patterns that make grading these coins both interesting and, at times, challenging.

Are Buffalo Nickels Silver? Understanding the Composition

A question that comes up in nearly every conversation about Buffalo nickel value is whether the coins contain silver. The direct answer is no — Buffalo nickels contain no silver and no precious metal of any kind. They are composed of 75 percent copper and 25 percent nickel, which is why they are called nickels in the first place. This composition has been the standard for U.S. five-cent coins since the 1860s, and it did not change for the Buffalo nickel series.

This is worth emphasizing because it has a direct bearing on how value is determined. Silver dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollars from the same era carry a base value tied to the silver content of the coin — what is commonly called melt value. A worn, dateless silver dime is still worth something because it contains silver regardless of its grade. That logic does not apply to Buffalo nickels. A worn, dateless Buffalo nickel has essentially no metal value beyond the copper and nickel in the alloy, which at any realistic spot price amounts to a fraction of a cent. The coin’s value, whatever it may be, is entirely numismatic — meaning it comes from collector demand, rarity, and condition, not from precious metal content.

The only U.S. nickel series that does contain silver is the wartime Jefferson nickel, minted from mid-1942 through 1945. Those coins were struck in an alloy of 56 percent copper, 35 percent silver, and 9 percent manganese, and they are identifiable by a large mint mark above Monticello on the reverse. Buffalo nickels never received this treatment — the wartime silver composition was introduced after the Buffalo nickel series had already ended in 1938. If you are sorting through a mixed group of old nickels, it is worth knowing the difference, but for any Buffalo nickel specifically, silver content is simply not a factor in the value calculation.

Because Buffalo nickels have no silver floor, the spread between a common circulated example and a premium key date or high-grade specimen is driven entirely by numismatic factors: scarcity, demand, and condition. That makes grading and variety identification especially important for this series, and it is why even a modest difference in grade can translate into a meaningful difference in value for the right coin.

Why So Many Buffalo Nickels Have No Date

One of the first things people notice when they go through a group of old Buffalo nickels is how many of them have no legible date. On some coins the date area is a smooth, featureless expanse of metal, with no trace of numerals at all. This is not a minting error — it is the predictable result of a design flaw combined with decades of ordinary circulation.

On the Buffalo nickel, the date was placed on a raised, curved area of the obverse field that happened to be one of the highest points of the coin’s design. When a coin circulates in pockets, cash registers, and counting machines, the high points contact other surfaces first and wear the fastest. The date on the Buffalo nickel was essentially sitting at the summit of the design, fully exposed to abrasion, while the flat rim of the coin offered it relatively little protection. Within just a few years of circulation, the date could become faint; after a decade or more of heavy use, it frequently vanished entirely. The same wear that flattened the date also wore down the horn of the bison on the reverse and the sharp details of the Native American portrait, but the date was the first casualty.

Dateless Buffalo nickels are extremely common. They are found in the millions, and while they are certainly genuine old coins, their value to collectors is minimal — generally a small premium above face value, in the range of a few cents to perhaps a quarter dollar depending on the buyer and the coin’s remaining eye appeal. The reason is straightforward: without a readable date and mint mark, it is impossible to know whether the coin is a common 1936 Philadelphia issue or a rare 1926-S. The date is the identity of the coin, and without it, all collector value tied to that identity is lost.

Some sellers attempt to restore dates to dateless Buffalo nickels using an acid treatment marketed specifically for this purpose. The process chemically etches the surface of the coin to reveal faint underlying detail. Coins treated this way are considered altered and are worth no more than an untreated dateless example — and often less, because the treatment destroys the coin’s surface integrity. A genuine, original coin with a sharp, readable date is always worth more than an acid-treated one, and any serious buyer or grading service will identify the treatment immediately. If you have Buffalo nickels with readable dates, those are the coins worth examining carefully.

The 1913 Type 1 and Type 2: The First Year’s Design Change

The very first year of the Buffalo nickel series, 1913, produced two distinct design types, and collectors treat them as separate coins. On the Type 1, the bison stands on a raised mound of earth, with the words FIVE CENTS and the denomination incused into that mound. On the Type 2, the mound was replaced by a flat ground line, and FIVE CENTS appears in the field below it. The change was made partway through 1913 at the insistence of the Mint, which determined that the raised mound design wore too quickly — the denomination, being on one of the highest points of the reverse, was disappearing from coins that had barely entered circulation. The Type 2 design addressed that problem by moving the critical text to a less exposed location.

All three mints — Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco — produced both types in 1913, giving collectors six distinct issues for the year. Among these, the 1913-S Type 2 is by far the most significant. It was struck in relatively small numbers at San Francisco, and in worn circulated grades it already commands a healthy premium; in choice uncirculated condition it is one of the genuinely scarce coins in the series. Collectors assembling a full Buffalo nickel date-and-mintmark set regard the 1913-S Type 2 as one of the most difficult pieces to acquire at a reasonable price.

Distinguishing the two types is straightforward once you know what to look for. Hold the coin with the reverse facing you and examine where the bison is standing. If there is a visible mound of ground beneath the animal and FIVE CENTS is recessed into that mound, it is a Type 1. If the bison stands on a simple flat line with FIVE CENTS in the open field below, it is a Type 2. The difference is obvious even on worn examples, making this one of the easier variety identifications in American numismatics.

Both types have their collectors, but the Type 2 is generally more collected because it is the design that ran for the remaining twenty-five years of the series. The Type 1 is valued as an interesting variant from the opening year, and high-grade Type 1 examples from all three mints carry their own collector premiums, particularly from Denver and San Francisco where mintages were more limited.

Key Dates and Famous Varieties in the Buffalo Nickel Series

The Buffalo nickel series has a well-defined hierarchy of scarce dates and important varieties that every collector and seller should know. Several dates stand out as true key dates — issues where low original mintages make high-quality survivors genuinely rare and expensive in any grade.

The 1921-S is one of the most challenging single dates in the series. San Francisco’s mintage for that year was very low, and because the coin circulated heavily, finding examples with sharp, readable dates and even moderate preservation is difficult. The 1924-S and the 1926-S follow a similar pattern — each was struck in comparatively limited numbers at San Francisco during years when the branch mint’s production was curtailed, and both are legitimately scarce in grades above heavily circulated. Collectors assembling a complete set in Very Fine or better condition find these dates consistently harder to source and more expensive to acquire than the common Philadelphia issues from the same period.

The 1918/7-D overdate is one of the most intriguing error coins in the series. On this variety, the last digit of the date — the 8 — was punched over a 7 from the previous year’s working die, leaving traces of the underlying 7 visible beneath the 8 when examined under magnification. Overdates were not unusual in early twentieth-century coinage production, when dies were sometimes re-engraved or repunched to extend their useful life, but the 1918/7-D is among the clearest and most sought-after examples in the nickel series. Identifying it requires a loupe or magnifying glass and some familiarity with what the undertype looks like, but once seen it is unmistakable.

The 1937-D Three-Legged Buffalo is arguably the most famous variety in the entire series, and it is the coin non-collectors are most likely to have heard of. On this variety, the bison appears to have only three legs — the right foreleg is missing entirely, giving the animal a distinctive and immediately recognizable appearance. The cause was not a die error in the traditional sense but rather overly aggressive die polishing by a Denver Mint worker attempting to remove a clash mark or other surface blemish from a working die. The polishing removed not just the unwanted mark but also the detail that formed the foreleg, and the altered die was put back into production before the problem was noticed. Many thousands of Three-Legged coins were struck before the die was retired, making the variety collectable but not impossibly rare. It is, however, significantly more valuable than a normal 1937-D in any given grade, and because it is so well known, it is also frequently counterfeited or altered — making PCGS or NGC certification particularly important for this variety.

The 1916 Doubled Die Obverse is a less publicized but genuinely scarce variety in which portions of the obverse design — particularly the date and lettering — show clear doubling from a misaligned hubbing during die production. Full Horn examples across the series also carry premiums; a coin on which the horn of the bison is completely intact and sharply struck is scarcer than the grade alone suggests, because a weak strike could produce a technically uncirculated coin with a flat horn that looks worn.

What Determines Buffalo Nickel Value

With no silver content to provide a floor, the value of any given Buffalo nickel comes down to four factors working in combination: whether the date and mint mark are readable, which specific date and mint mark they are, the grade and strike quality of the coin, and whether the coin is a recognized variety.

Readability of the date is the first filter. As discussed in the section on dateless coins, a Buffalo nickel without a legible date has essentially no collector value beyond a small premium above face. If you have a group of Buffalo nickels, begin by sorting them into those with clear dates and those without. The dateless coins are not worthless, but they should not be the focus of your research time.

For coins with readable dates, the date and mint mark combination determines the baseline value. Common dates — most Philadelphia issues from the mid-1930s, for example — trade at modest premiums over face value in circulated grades, with the premium growing as condition improves. Key dates and semi-key dates trade at multiples of that baseline. The coin grading scale is the framework professionals use to express condition precisely, running from Poor-1 at the bottom through various circulated grades (Good, Very Good, Fine, Very Fine, Extremely Fine, About Uncirculated) up to Mint State grades from MS-60 through MS-70 for uncirculated coins. On a Buffalo nickel, the high points that wear first are the date and the cheekbone on the obverse and the horn and hip of the bison on the reverse — these are the areas graders examine most closely.

Strike quality is a separate consideration that grade alone does not capture. A Full Horn designation, applied by PCGS and NGC to coins where the bison’s horn is fully and sharply defined, indicates that the original die impression transferred cleanly to that coin — a meaningful distinction on a series where weak strikes were common, particularly at the Denver Mint in certain years. Full Horn coins consistently trade at premiums over otherwise similar examples, because they represent the design as Fraser intended it to look.

For key dates, major varieties like the 1937-D Three-Legged, and any coin in Mint State, PCGS or NGC certification matters both for authentication and for establishing grade in a way that buyers and sellers can rely on. Lone Star Coins is a PCGS and NGC Authorized Dealer and regularly handles graded Buffalo nickels — if you have coins you believe may be key dates or high-grade examples, professional certification is worth considering before a sale.

Getting Buffalo Nickels Identified, Appraised, and Sold

If you have Buffalo nickels and are trying to figure out what you actually have, the most reliable path forward is to get them in front of someone with experience in the series. Identifying a 1918/7-D overdate or confirming that a coin is a genuine Three-Legged rather than an altered normal 1937-D requires hands-on examination, good magnification, and familiarity with what the authentic variety looks like — details that photographs and online guides can point you toward but cannot fully substitute for.

For families sorting through inherited collections, a practical first step is to separate coins by date and mint mark, note which ones have sharp, readable dates, and set aside anything that looks visually distinctive — an unusual number of legs on the bison, a doubled appearance on the date, or any coin in noticeably better condition than the rest of the group. Those are the pieces that merit closer attention.

The coin grading scale guide on this site explains in detail how circulated and uncirculated grades are applied and what the key grading points are for Buffalo nickels specifically — understanding that framework helps make sense of what price guides are quoting for a given date. Our page on we buy rare and graded coins explains how Lone Star Coins evaluates and purchases graded and ungraded Buffalo nickels, including same-day payment for collections and individual key dates. For anyone in the San Antonio area who wants a face-to-face assessment, free coin appraisals in San Antonio are available at the showroom on NW Loop 410 with no appointment required — bring your coins in and the staff will tell you what you have, which dates are worth pursuing further, and what a realistic value range looks like in today’s market.