My Favorite Coins: The Buffalo Nickel
Mike Thorne introduces us to his favorite coins. First up is the 1914-D Buffalo Nickel.
When you’ve been collecting for more than 65 years, you’re bound to acquire some coins that you like better than others. In this column, I’m going to tell you about some of my favorite coins. Here, I’m going to introduce you to the 1914-D Buffalo nickel in PCGS-graded XF45 that I purchased recently on eBay.
One reason I’m attracted to this coin is that I love Buffalo nickels and have owned many in my years as a collector. I even assembled a complete date/mintmark set back in the early 1970s. The set was a mixture of circulated and uncirculated pieces, and I don’t have a clue what I did with it.
As you probably know, the Buffalo nickel was designed by James Earle Fraser, whose initial “F” is immediately below the date. Unlike previous depictions of Indians other than Indian Head quarter eagles, Fraser’s obverse for the nickel has a figure that actually looks like an Indian, not like Liberty with an Indian headdress.
Fraser was married to Laura Gardin, an accomplished sculptor in her own right. I mention his wife because we have her to thank for the right-facing bust of Washington on our quarters minted since 2022. If you like her version of Washington better than John Flanagan’s, then you agree with the committee that selected her design over Flanagan’s back in 1932. Fortunately, it has been revived for the new American Women quarter series.
The 1914-D’s mintage of 3.91 million gives it the 10th lowest mintage out of the 64 different date/mintmark combinations in the series. As such, it has always been considered a better date, and its values reflect this status. In XF45, the PCGS Price Guide says it’s worth $300, which is considerably more than common dates are worth and is a little bit more than I paid for the coin shown in this column. In this grade, the 1914-P lists for $45, for example.
Inexplicably, the date with the 9th lowest mintage, 1914-S (3.47 million), is worth less in almost all grades, surpassing the 1914-D’s value only in MS65 and higher grades. Amazingly, the PCGS Population Report gives essentially identical totals for the number of each date certified (1914-D, 2,829; 1914-S, 2,814). There are differences by grade, of course, with smaller 1914-S totals for the MS65, which perhaps explains the higher values in these grades for the 1914-S.
In comparison with the 1914-D, the XF45 1914-S is valued at just $135. Can this be explained by an abundance of 1914-S’s certified in this grade? The answer is no, as the total for the 1914-D is 170, whereas for the 1914-S, it’s only 107.
According to David Hall, one of the founders of PCGS and a former president of the company, “The 1914-D is quite rare in circulated grades and is one of the semi-key dates in the Buffalo nickel series. There were apparently some examples saved in mint state condition [and, although] scarce, choice and gem specimens can be obtained. . . Strike is usually ok on this issue, as it is on the other early D-mints. Luster is the usual early Buffalo nickel satin look and can be either a little subdued (dull) or somewhat bright.”
Hall says this about the 1914-S, “The 1914-S is quite a bit easier to locate in circulated grades than the 1914-D, but it is somewhat rarer in mint state grades. Gem MS65 or better specimens are rare. Strike is somewhat soft, as is the case with most S-mint Buffalos. The luster can vary from satiny to somewhat frosty.”
The PCGS population numbers don’t agree with either statement, as the total for circulated 1914-Ds is 1,639 and only 959 for 1914-Ss. Of course, it’s entirely possible that fewer circulated 1914-S nickels have been submitted for certification because of their low values. Another possibility is that the 1914-D numbers are positively skewed because more of them are resubmitted in the hopes of getting a higher grade and, thus, a higher value.
I looked at the current NGC population numbers, and there again I find some disagreement with Hall’s statements. Although the total number certified is higher for the 1914-S, suggesting it is the more common date (1,858 versus 1,642), the number of circulated 1914-Ds certified by NGC is actually higher than for the 1914-S (903 versus 721).
Yet another possibility is that the 1914-S is undervalued, whereas the 1914-D is overvalued. This suggests to me that a nice 1914-S might find a home in my collection.
As I said earlier, one reason I picked the 1914-D Buffalo nickel to talk about is that I really like Buffalo nickels. Another reason is that I found one in my roll/sack searching days in the same grade as the one I purchased recently. Well, it was almost in the same grade.
Although the coin hadn’t been cleaned and had a great strike and all the details of an XF Buffalo nickel, it had one glaring problem: a large rim nick below the date. I considered various repair solutions for the coin, such as mashing the raised metal down with a pair of pliers or grinding it away. But in the end, I got rid of the coin, the details of how are long since forgotten. That’s what happens when you’ve been collecting for more than 65 years.
Although I’ve focused on the 1914-D and S nickels, it turns out that 1914 was a great year for collectors of U.S. coins. There’s the 1914-D Lincoln cent, which is a key date in the series, and the 1914-S, which is a nice semi-key among the early S-mint coins.
In Barber quarters, there’s the 1914-S, with the same mintage as the 1916-D Mercury dime (264,000). That makes it the date with the fourth lowest mintage in the series, after only the big keys (1896-S, 1901-S, 1913-S). It has gone up in value over the years, but perhaps not as much as you might think. According to PCGS, the date ranges in value between $120 in G4 and $4,000 in MS63. By contrast, the 1916-D dime ranges in value between $1,325 and $21,750 in the same grades.
The 1914 half-dollar just happens to have the lowest mintage of the entire Barber half-dollar series, with only 124,230 produced. As such, it ranges in value in the PCGS price guide between $135 in G4 and $3,150 in MS63.
In quarter eagles ($2.50 gold pieces), 1914 and 1914-D are considered condition rarities, relatively common in lower grades but decidedly uncommon in high grades. According to PCGS, the two are worth $27,500 and $30,000 in MS65, respectively. 1914 has the second lowest mintage in the series at 240,000, behind only the key date 1911-D.
The rest of the 1914 emissions are not especially interesting, but it was still a very good year, particularly for one of my favorite coins, the 1914-D Buffalo nickel. If you guessed that I talked myself into ordering an XF45 1914-S Buffalo nickel, you were right. It’s a Christmas present to myself.
Happy Collecting!
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