Buffalo Nickel

About This Series

James Earle Fraser's Buffalo nickel ran from 1913 to 1938: a composite Indian portrait on one side, a bison named Black Diamond from the Central Park Zoo on the other. The date wore off quickly on circulated examples, producing hundreds of thousands of dateless coins. Key varieties include the 1916 doubled die, the 1918/7-D overdate, and the 1937-D "three-legged" bison, where an over-polished die removed the front leg. The series ended when the Jefferson nickel took over; Fraser's design came back in 2006 on the American Gold Buffalo.