United States Buffalo Nickel

The United States Buffalo nickel, also referred to as the Indian Head nickel, is a five-cent piece struck in copper-nickel by the United States Mint from 1913 to 1938. The coin was introduced following a broader drive to enhance the aesthetic quality of United States coinage. Sculptor James Earle Fraser was commissioned to design the piece during the Taft administration, superseding the previous Liberty Head design created by Charles E. Barber.

Although Fraser's models received official approval in 1912, issuance was delayed due to protracted protests from the Hobbs Manufacturing Company, a maker of slug-detection devices for coin-operated machines. Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh ultimately instructed the Mint to release the coins in February 1913 notwithstanding the company's objections. In daily circulation, the coins struck somewhat indistinctly and suffered from rapid wear, with the date numerals especially prone to rubbing away. Upon the conclusion of the mandatory twenty-five-year duration during which coin designs could not be altered without congressional approval, the series was retired in 1938 and replaced by Felix Schlag's Jefferson nickel.

The coin features a right-facing portrait of a Native American on the obverse and a standing American bison on the reverse. Production during the initial year of 1913 encompassed two principal varieties: an early reverse in which the bison stands atop a raised mound, and a modified reverse introduced later in 1913 where the ground line was flattened and lowered.