It was a difficult time for Charles Barber, Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint. Although Teddy Roosevelt was no longer in office, his desire to have more classical designs on our coins, as expressed to Augustus Saint-Gaudens over dinner in 1905, was very much alive. Barber's uninspired Liberty Head nickel had been in production since 1883. Under the Coinage Act of 1890, it was time for a change, and Secretary of the Treasury Franklin MacVeagh, originally a Roosevelt appointee, wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. Reminded by his son in May, 1911, that a new nickel would be "A permanent souvenir of the most attractive sort," MacVeagh, pointedly bypassing the competent but mediocre Barber, started the process for a new design. The Buffalo nickel became a reality less than two years later. On March 4, 1913, coins from the first bag to go into circulation were presented to outgoing President Taft and 33 Indian Chiefs at the groundbreaking ceremonies for the National Memorial to the North American Indian at Fort Wadsworth, New York. James Earle Fraser, a former assistant to Saint-Gaudens and a prolific artist best known for his monumental "End of the Trail" Indian sculpture, created a truly unique design for the new coin. Up until that time, except for Bela Lyon Pratt's quarter and half eagle of 1908, the "Indians" portrayed on U.S. coins were primarily Caucasian with an Indian headdress, epitomized by Saint Gauden's Greek Nike head on the 1907 Indian eagle. Fraser's design accurately portrays Indians as they look, and the obverse portrait was a composite of three chiefs that had posed for him. Keeping with the distinctly American theme, he depicted an American bison on the reverse. Fraser's design was medallic and beautiful, and for that reason was favored by Secretary MacVeagh. Its allure seemed to completely elude Barber, who complained that the design elements were too large and didn't allow for the proper placement of inscriptions. Barber didn't get very far with this, as the design remained unchanged over his objections. Reservations also came from the vending machine business, which felt that the new coins wouldn't pass counterfeit detection devices properly. After much wrangling over this, Secretary MacVeagh instructed the Mint to proceed with the original design, and let the vending machine companies adapt their mechanisms to the coin. Many mint-marked coins are virtually unavailable well struck. When grading these coins, and many other weakly struck Buffalos, you must take the surface into account, as many full luster pieces will not show rounded relief detail on the high points of the horn or the fringe on the tail. Generally, the date and LIBERTY will be faint on weakly struck pieces. The points on the coin that wear most readily are the high point of the Indian's cheekbone and the hair near the part. On the reverse, the bison's hip, the fringe on its tail and the horn are the first areas to show wear. Denver coins are usually weaker strikes than San Francisco and was the only mint used to strike the final year 1938 Buffalo nickel. The past decade has witnessed renewed collector interest in the Buffalo series, no doubt stimulated by the wealth of new research published by nickel specialists. An ever-growing number of numismatists are assembling complete sets of Buffalos by date and mintmark, but demand is also strong from type collectors, all of whom seek this design for their 20th century or more comprehensive type sets. The addition of the new 2005 Buffalo nickel has spurred strong demand and driven prices for the Original Buffalo nickels to new highs. By the end of 1937, planning for the Buffalo nickel's successor was well under way, as the design's required 25 years would end the following year. It was to be replaced by the third coin to bear a likeness of one of our presidents, Thomas Jefferson. The Jefferson nickel continues in production to this day. The coin in this offer has good detail and has been hand picked by a professional numismatist. The coin comes in a custom package in a holder covered in original artwork celebrating the famed buffalo nickel. |