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Indian Head Buffalo Nickel
The Indian Head Nickel coin, also known as the Buffalo Nickel, is the
third coin design in the Five Cent Nickel series. This coin design by
portrait sculptor James Earle Fraser succeeded Charles Barber’s Liberty
Head V Nickel in 1913 and continued minting until 1938. The coining of a
new design was part of the mandate to beautify the American coinage,
which was proving to be still unsuccessful after several attempts.
The Mint thought that commissioning a real artist would solve the
problem so they hired the portrait sculptor. James Earle Fraser did away
with the common patriotic symbols and experimented with the portrait of
a Native American Indian for obverse side of the coin and an American
bison (buffalo) on the reverse. The artistic sculptor said he wanted to
create a design that is unmistakably American that’s why he chose the
buffalo, which he thought was 100% American. And the
American Indian portrait complemented his concept perfectly.
This new design impressed the U.S. government because of the freshness
and originality of the concept. It totally broke away from the monotony
of the previous designs without losing the American distinction.
However, it received mixed reviews when it was officially released on
March 4, 1913. The general public found the new coin as “truly American”
but media critics found it mediocre. Some even thought it to be
everything a coin should not be. The new design also failed to get the
nod of the Mint because of striking difficulties it posed—the usual
problem with designs made by artists outside the Mint. No matter how the
Mint tried to adjust the design, the resulting coins still bore
imprecise images. Due to weakness of the strike, the elements on the
coin easily wore off after some time in the circulation. The coin dies
used in minting were also wearing off much faster than usual, even
faster than the Liberty Head V Nickel coin dies. This caused higher
production cost.
Several redesigns were made to address these problems. The words “Five
Cents” were enlarged and the hill on which the bison stood was
flattened. The word “Liberty” was also polished for more emphasis.
However, authorities remain unconvinced. They said that the alterations
made no difference or improvement in the minting process. The redesigns
only resulted in more incongruities hence, several varieties of the
Buffalo Nickel. So when the minimum 25 years of circulation expired in
January 1938, a competition to come up with a new design was immediately
opened to the public. The new design was to feature President Thomas
Jefferson and his home, the Monticello. And the Buffalo Nickel met its
end.
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