The Buffalo nickel is a staple of any coin collection and is commonly called either an Indian Head nickel or the more traditional Buffalo nickel.
These nickels were minted between 1913 and 1938.
Over that time, the nickel was produced at 3 of the United States mints.
These facilities were in Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco.
You can determine the location where you coin was minted by finding the mint mark.
This is located on the tails side of the coin, which is the side with the buffalo.
Look at the bottom under the phrase "Five Cents.
" There are 4 possible options for the mint mark.
A "D" means that the coin was made at the Denver, Colorado mint.
An "S" mint mark means that the coin is a product of the mint in San Francisco.
The other two possibilities are a "P" or no mint mark at all.
Both of these indicate that the coin was minted in Philadelphia.
On the front of the coin, under the date, you will also find an "F.
" This is not a mark and does not show where the coin was produced.
Instead, the letter "F" shown under the date is the initial of the coin's designer James E.
Fraser.
Fraser designed the artwork for the coin.
The buffalo for which the coin takes is name was Black Diamond, who lived at the Central Park Zoo.
This beautiful creature was given to the zoo by Barnum and Bailey and died a few years after the coin went into circulation.
The other notable figure on the coin is the native American Indian.
However, the depiction is not of a specific Indian chief.
The Indian pictured on the front of the coin is a composite three Indian chiefs - Iron Tail, an Oglala Sioux chief, Two Moons, a Cheyenne chief, and Big Tree, a Kiowa chief.
Fraser took features from these figures and combined them to create the classic image shown on the front of the coin.
On average these coins are worth about 7 to 10 times their face value, however, there are exceptions.
Many of these coins are extremely valuable, the most valuable is the 1937 minting that has 3-legged buffalo.