Buffalo Nickels Worth: The Complete 1913-1938 Value Guide

Historical Context

James Earle Fraser's Design and a Twenty-Five-Year Run

Buffalo nickels replaced the Liberty Head nickel in 1913 and remained in production through 1938 — a twenty-five-year run that ended only because the series had reached its legally mandated minimum production term. Designer James Earle Fraser studied three separate Native American subjects for the obverse portrait, combining their features into a composite image that has never been positively attributed to a single individual. The reverse bison has been associated with a buffalo at the Bronx Zoo, though that attribution is also contested.

The series actually split into two distinct types within its first year of production. The original Type 1 reverse showed the buffalo standing on a raised mound, with FIVE CENTS inscribed across that mound. After the Mint determined that the denomination wore away too quickly in circulation, the reverse was redesigned mid-1913 into the Type 2 layout, which placed FIVE CENTS in a recessed exergue below the ground line. Both types were struck at Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco in 1913, making the first year one of the most complex to collect in the entire series.

Throughout the entire run from 1913 through 1938, the metallic composition never changed: 75% copper and 25% nickel. There were no silver, billon, or clad Buffalo nickels struck for circulation. This fact eliminates the silver-content angle that complicates grading decisions in dime and quarter series, but it also means that every dollar of Buffalo nickel value is numismatic — driven entirely by date, mintmark, grade, strike quality, and variety status.

Three mints produced Buffalo nickels across the run: Philadelphia (no mintmark), Denver (D), and San Francisco (S). Philadelphia generally produced the largest annual mintages, but scarcity in this series is emphatically not a simple function of how many coins were struck. Denver and San Francisco issues were frequently weakly struck, heavily circulated, and poorly preserved, so many branch-mint dates are far scarcer in Mint State than their mintage figures alone would suggest. The 1925-S, for example, had a mintage of 6,256,000 — not a small number — yet PCGS ranks it among the toughest non-variety Buffaloes to find in Gem condition.

Key Dates

Buffalo Nickels Worth Knowing: Key Dates, Mintmarks, and Major Varieties

The entries below draw on PCGS CoinFacts issue notes, the PCGS Price Guide as updated May 18, 2026, and recent realized prices from Heritage, Stack's Bowers, and GreatCollections. Where mintage figures appear, they are taken verbatim from the dossier source material. The series divides into two practical scarcity stories: date keys that are rare at nearly every grade level, and condition keys where circulated examples are manageable but high-grade pieces are genuinely rare. Knowing which category applies to each coin can prevent overpaying for a common date in Fine and underpaying for a condition-rarity date in Mint State.

Common Buffalo Nickel Dates Worth Less Than You Think

A handful of Buffalo nickel dates circulate in online listings at inflated prices relative to what the actual market supports. Knowing these saves collectors from paying key-date premiums for semi-common coins.

• 1916-D (mintage 13,333,000): A better branch-mint date with real collector demand, but not a key date. Well-worn examples in Good condition trade at modest premiums over face value. The 1916-D becomes meaningful only in higher circulated and Mint State grades, where it competes with other condition-rarity dates from the same era.
• 1916-S (mintage 11,860,000): Similar situation to the 1916-D. Gem examples are genuinely rare, but lower-grade examples are frequently overpriced by sellers who assume the 1916 DDO premium extends to all 1916 issues. It does not.
• 1931-S (mintage 1,200,000): The second-lowest mintage in the series, but PCGS explicitly notes that original rolls were saved, so Mint State examples are more accessible than the mintage figure implies. Do not pay key-date Mint State premiums based on mintage alone.
• 1925-D (mintage 4,450,000): Often listed at inflated prices because of its mid-1920s vintage. It is a better date that is scarce in high Mint State, but not a headline key. Circulated examples trade at modest premiums.
• Dateless Buffalo nickels: Coins worn beyond legible date attribution have little collector value on their own unless a better date can be recovered. Chemical date restoration (Nic-A-Date) can satisfy curiosity but typically produces a damaged-surface coin that trades at a discount.

Errors and Varieties

Buffalo Nickel Mint Errors and Die Varieties Worth Identifying

Buffalo nickels produced an unusually rich crop of collectible die varieties, ranging from the series' two headline overdates to specialist RPMs and doubled dies that carry meaningful premiums when attributed and certified. Because the downside of a mis-attributed or counterfeit variety can be severe at current price levels, PCGS and NGC certification is the standard expectation for any variety trading above modest circulated values. The following entries focus on varieties the major grading services and auction houses actively price and trade.

Composition

Buffalo Nickel Composition: One Alloy, Twenty-Five Years

Unlike many U.S. coin series, the Buffalo nickel presents no composition variation to track. The alloy stayed constant from the first 1913 Philadelphia strike through the final 1938 Denver coin, which simplifies authentication for this series — there are no wartime metal substitutions, no clad transitions, and no silver variants to consider.

The practical implication for collectors is that all dollar value in the Buffalo nickel series is numismatic rather than melt-driven. A worn 1926-S is not worth more than a worn 1936 Philadelphia coin because of metal content — it is worth more because of relative scarcity, collector demand, and the premium the market places on the key date. This contrasts sharply with series like the Mercury dime or Walking Liberty half dollar, where silver melt establishes a meaningful floor even for common, heavily worn examples.

The absence of composition change also rules out one category of authentication confusion common in other series. There are no transitional-alloy errors to watch for, no planchet-composition suspects, and no silver-to-clad switching year to anchor counterfeiting suspicion. Off-metal errors do exist as individual curiosities — the dossier notes a 1918-D struck on a cent planchet that realized $4,080 at Stack's Bowers in November 2025 — but these are genuine mint errors, not composition variants, and are priced on a one-of-a-kind basis rather than as a systematic series issue.

Authentication

Counterfeits, Altered Coins, and When to Certify Buffalo Nickels

The Buffalo nickel series has three serious authentication traps — the 1916 Doubled Die Obverse, the 1918/7-D overdate, and the 1937-D Three-Legged — plus a more diffuse problem with dateless coins and chemical date restoration. Current price levels make the asymmetry clear: the cost of a wrong call on a raw 1918/7-D or 1937-D Three-Legged is far larger than the cost of PCGS or NGC certification. The guidance below tracks what PCGS issue notes and major auction houses actually emphasize for each risk category.

The Three Major Authenticity Traps

The 1916 DDO is frequently imitated because the genuine variety commands $5,000 or more even in low circulated grades. The authentic doubling is dramatic and naked-eye visible on the date, lips, chin, and feathers simultaneously. A tiny shelf-edge mark confined to one element — one digit, one lip line — is not the genuine DDO. PCGS' feature article on the variety emphasizes that widespread, obvious doubling is the defining characteristic. Examining only the date area is insufficient; the portrait elements must also show the doubling clearly.

The 1918/7-D is dangerous because the underlying 7 can be reproduced by tooling or chemical enhancement of a common 1918-D. The critical diagnostic is whether the date area looks natural and integral to the die — any disturbed, smoothed, or tooled metal around the numerals is a disqualifying warning sign. Heritage descriptions of genuine examples consistently note a clean, integral appearance around the date.

The 1937-D Three-Legged is Heritage's explicit poster child for bogus raw coins in the Buffalo nickel market. Genuine examples show the missing right front leg with the correct die-polish diagnostics under the belly and near the hoof area. Random abrasion, filled gouges, or metal removal from the wrong leg position is not the genuine variety. The three-test approach — confirming the correct leg is missing, checking the hoof/belly diagnostics, and verifying that no abrasion disturbs the field around the missing leg — is the minimum authentication protocol before buying a raw example at significant money.

When Professional Grading Pays

PCGS and NGC both offer economy submission tiers that can make certification viable well below the key-date price levels. For Buffalo nickels specifically, the economics are particularly clear because the gap between a problem coin and a problem-free example in the same grade is often larger than in other series.

A 'Genuine-Cleaned' or 'Details' designation from PCGS or NGC tells the buyer exactly what they are getting and prevents a cleaning-damaged coin from trading as problem-free. For Buffalo nickels, where original surfaces and above-average strike both carry premiums, a Details designation is far more honest — and ultimately more valuable — than raw coins of uncertain status.

Why Cleaning Destroys Buffalo Nickel Value

Collector consensus across hobby forums, grading service guidelines, and major auction house descriptions is consistent: do not clean Buffalo nickels. Surface originality matters to buyers, graders, and auction houses in this series more than in many others because the combination of original luster and above-average strike already commands a premium. Cleaning removes the luster that defines a coin's eye appeal and leaves microscopic abrasions that graders identify immediately under a loupe.

For the condition-rarity branch-mint dates — 1924-S, 1925-S, 1926-S, 1927-S, 1920-S — where genuinely sharp, original-surface examples are already rare, a cleaning event is especially destructive. A coin that might have graded MS-64 problem-free will grade Details-Cleaned at best, dropping its market value to a fraction of the uncleaned equivalent. The rule is absolute: if there is any realistic chance a Buffalo nickel is valuable, do not clean it.

Myth vs Reality

What the Internet Gets Wrong About Buffalo Nickels

Buffalo nickels attract more than their share of online misinformation — partly because a few famous varieties genuinely are worth tens of thousands of dollars, and partly because the series' age and worn condition make it easy to confuse damage with rarity. The corrections below are drawn from PCGS issue notes, major auction house descriptions, and the dossier's own analysis of collector misconceptions.

Action Steps

What To Do If You Think Your Buffalo Nickels Are Worth Money

Whether you have inherited a jar of old nickels or found a single coin that looks significant, the path from 'I might have something' to 'I know what I have and what to do with it' follows a predictable sequence. These steps apply to any Buffalo nickel from a 1913 Type 1 through a 1938-D overmintmark.

1. Sort by type, date, and mintmark first

Before looking up any values, establish basic attribution on each coin. Determine whether 1913 coins are Type 1 or Type 2 by the reverse design. Note the mintmark — on the reverse, below FIVE CENTS — or the absence of one for Philadelphia coins. Set aside any coin with a visible date from the key years: 1913-S, 1916 (check for doubling), 1918-D (check for underlying 7 in the date), 1921-S, 1924-S, 1926-S, and 1937-D (check for missing front leg). Truly dateless coins can be set aside separately for the dateless decision step below.

• Type 1 reverse: buffalo on a raised mound; denomination on the mound.
• Type 2 reverse: buffalo on a flat ground line; denomination in recessed exergue.
• Mintmarks on reverse below FIVE CENTS: D = Denver, S = San Francisco, no mark = Philadelphia.
• Flag any coin where the date looks unusual, doubled, or where a numeral appears to contain a second underlying numeral.

2. Compare flagged dates against this guide's values

Use the primary value table in this article to establish a rough grade range for any coins you flagged in Step 1. Grading Buffalo nickels correctly requires evaluating date clarity, the horn and tail on the buffalo, the hair braid and cheek on the portrait, and peripheral lettering — not just the horn alone. PCGS issue notes repeatedly warn that weak strikes on branch-mint dates can imitate wear, so evaluate the whole coin rather than one diagnostic element. The 'Lightly Worn' to 'Almost New' range is where grade-jump price increases are sharpest for key dates.

3. Research recent auction comparables for any significant date

For any coin that appears to fall in the $200-and-above range based on your initial grade estimate, supplement the guide values with recent realized prices from Heritage, Stack's Bowers, and GreatCollections. Guide prices, as both PCGS and NGC explicitly caution, can lag fast-moving markets and do not capture eye appeal, strike quality, or CAC premiums. A Heritage realized price from 2024 or 2025 is a better decision tool than a static guide value for branch-mint condition rarities and major varieties.

4. Certify any key date or major variety before selling

For the 1916 DDO, 1918/7-D, 1937-D Three-Legged, 1913-S Type 2, 1926-S, and 1924-S in upper Mint State, professional certification from PCGS or NGC is not optional — it is the difference between a coin that sells for its full market value and one that buyers discount heavily for uncertainty. The grading fee is a small fraction of the premium a certified holder adds for these coins. Never sell a raw major variety at significant money.

5. Decide what to do with dateless coins

If you have Buffalo nickels worn beyond legible date attribution, the realistic options are: sell in bulk as 'dateless Buffalo nickels' (a recognized collector category with modest values), use Nic-A-Date only on coins with no remaining surface detail to triage them (accepting that the result will be a damaged-surface coin regardless of what date appears), or simply hold them as novelty pieces. Do not apply chemical date restoration to any coin with remaining surface quality or detail — the damage is irreversible.

• Bulk dateless Buffalo nickels sell at modest premiums over face on eBay and to dealers.
• Chemical date restoration is a one-way process — assess the coin's surface before committing.
• If the coin has any remaining detail, get professional evaluation first.

6. Choose the right selling channel for your grade and coin

Common circulated Buffalo nickels ($2–$20 each) are best sold in bulk lots on eBay or to a local dealer. Better dates in circulated grades ($50–$500) can be listed individually on eBay with PCGS or NGC population context, or taken to a coin show where specialist buyers are present. Key dates and major varieties in Mint State are best consigned to Heritage, Stack's Bowers, or GreatCollections, where the buyer pool is deepest and competitive bidding maximizes realized prices. Avoid general antique dealers for key-date or variety Buffalo nickels — the numismatic premium is rarely recognized outside the coin hobby.

7. Check current independent values before finalizing any transaction

For complete grade-by-grade pricing on any U.S. coin, Coins-Value.com maintains the most comprehensive independent value reference available, with 20,000+ U.S. and Canadian coin entries. Use it as a final cross-check before accepting a dealer offer or setting an eBay asking price — particularly for dates where the PCGS and NGC guides may not yet reflect the most recent auction results.

Frequently Asked

Buffalo Nickels Worth: Common Owner Questions Answered