U.S. Buffalo Nickel and the First Nickel Coin
Buffalo Nickel
In 1911 sculptor James Earl Fraser began designing the "Buffalo"
nickel. Fraser said the portrait on the "head's" side was a composite of
three American Indians--Iron Tail, Big Tree and Two Moons.
Fraser had the opportunity to study and photograph them when they
stopped off in New York on their way to Washington to visit President
Theodore Roosevelt. By borrowing features from each individual, Fraser
was able to sketch the "ideal" portrait for the nickel.
The model for the "tail's" side of the coin was none other than Black
Diamond, the most contrary animal in New York's Bronx Zoo. He was born
of stock donated by the Barnum and Bailey circus. In his prime, his coat
was unusually dark, and he weighed more than 1500 pounds.
Fraser stood for hours, trying to catch his form and mood in clay.
But Black Diamond stubbornly refused to show his side view, and faced
the artist most of the time. Only by bribing a zoo attendant to distract
the animal was Fraser finally able to capture the likeness he
wanted.
President William Howard Taft approved the art work, and the first
"Buffalo" nickels were produced in February of 1913. Two Moons died in
1917, and Iron Tail and Big Tree in the 1920s. In the 1960s, a second
Big Tree appeared at coin shows and claimed to be the Native American on
the nickel. Although he claimed to have celebrated his 100th birthday in
1962, later records indicated he was actually only 87.
Fraser's Life
He was born in Minnesota in 1876, but grew up on a ranch in South
Dakota. His first art instructor was a town whittler. Later, Fraser
studied art in Chicago and Paris and established a studio in Westport,
Connecticut.
He was only 17 when he completed the first modeling of "The End of
the Trail." The statue portrays a weary Native American riding an
equally forlorn horse. At an exhibition in Paris in 1898, "The End of
the Trail" won a $1,000 cash prize. Despite the pressure of other
projects, Fraser worked on "The End of the Trail" off and on throughout
his career. Today a large version of the statue is in the Cowboy Hall of
Fame and Western History Center in Oklahoma City, which also has
Fraser's sketches for the "tail's" side of the Buffalo nickel.
When the Buffalo nickel finally made its debut in 1913, a coin
collector's magazine hailed it as a true work of art, powerfully
modelled. Many critics agreed, and in 1951 the American Academy of Arts
and Letters presented Fraser with a gold medal honoring a lifetime of
distinguished achievement. On October 11, 1953, James Earle Fraser
died.
"Nickels"
Did you know that our first 5-cent coin was not a nickel and our
first "nickel" was not a 5-cent coin?
The coin we now call the "nickel" originated as a silver half dime in
1792, the beginning of its 79 year life as a silver 5-cent coin.
Our first nickel coins were not 5-cent pieces at all. Nickel first
appeared in United States coinage with the introduction of the small
size 1-cent pieces in 1856. Its composition was mostly copper and less
than 1/6 nickel. The nickel caused the coin to be much lighter in color
than the older copper coins. For that reason, it was sometimes called a
white cent. Another common name was a "nick" -- short for nickel --
referring to its nickel content. This composition was continued in the
cent into 1864.
The first "nickel" 5-cent piece to be struck was the Shield Type
starting in 1866. The composition of the coin was three-quarters copper
and one quarter nickel, the same as today's nickels. That means the
metal that gives the coin its name is only 25% of its content! The
Shield type was replaced by the Liberty Head or "V" Nickel in 1883 and
the Indian Head, more commonly called the "Buffalo" Nickel in 1913. Our
current "Nickel," was introduced in 1938, the result of a public
competition among some 390 artists.
The winning designer was Felix Schlag with his designs of Thomas
Jefferson on the obverse or front of the coin and a portrait of Thomas
Jefferson's home, Monticello, on the reverse or back of the coin.
During WWII, for a four-year period beginning in 1942, when nickel
was a critical war material, it was replaced with silver. The five-cent
piece was reconfigured to look something like the old alloy. But it
really contained 56-percent copper, 35-percent silver and 9-percent
manganese These "silver" nickels can be distinguished by a large
mintmark on the reverse, above Monticello's dome.
Curiously, our neighbors in Canada do have experience with
pure-nickel nickels (and pure-nickel dimes, quarters and half dollars!).
Bringing a magnet near a pure-nickel Canadian coin is fun: the coin will
stick to the magnet, whereas our five-cent coin doesn't have enough
nickel to notice a magnet at all.
Joseph Wharton - the "nickel man"
He's best remembered as the founder of the Wharton School of Business
at the University of Pennsylvania. But he also gave the nation a coin
that's still going strong in its original metal alloy, more than 130
years after the first examples were released.
In the 1870s the chief coiner at the Philadelphia Mint referred to
Joseph Wharton as the best "nickel man" around.
The owner of the Gap Nickel Mine in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
Wharton was the country's leading advocate of nickel coinage. Oddly
enough, the first coin to be called a "nickel" was really a "penny,"
composed of copper and nickel. It wasn't until 1866 that the first
nickel five-cent pieces were made.
Joseph Wharton had lobbied long and hard for the new coin. Congress
decided to go along with his proposal because nickels could be used to
redeem the tattered five-cent notes that were issued during the Civil
War. Like today's version, the first nickel coin contained only
25-percent nickel; the rest was copper. Instead of Thomas Jefferson, the
"heads" side pictured an American shield, and the "tails" side had stars
and rays around a large number "5."
Critics dubbed it "the ugliest of all known coins," and described the
shield as "a tombstone surmounted by a cross overhung by weeping
willows." Many people thought the stars and rays represented the "stars
and bars" of the Confederate flag.
Still, the nickel was an instant success, and in 1867 a record 30
million of them were made. Since then, the nickel's design has been
changed several times-but beneath its surface, it's the same as ever . .
. a tribute to Joseph Wharton's farsightedness.
The 1913 Nickel
In 1913, the United States government launched a bold, new
nickel.
Sculptor James Earle Fraser said his goal was to design a coin that
would be "truly American." In his search for symbols, he found none more
distinctive than the American bison. Choosing to show a Native American
on the other side of the coin, Fraser said the new nickel had "perfect
unity of theme."
Production of "Buffalo" or "Indian Head" nickels began in February
1913. A single coining press at the Philadelphia Mint started turning
out the nickels at the rate of 120 a minute. Treasury Secretary Frank
MacVeagh promised the nickel would be "immensely interesting and
beautiful." But after the first examples were placed in circulation, the
New York Times condemned them as a "travesty on artistic effect."
Other critics said that the coin's "rough" surfaces would encourage
counterfeiters. But the most serious complaint about the nickel had to
do with its inability to withstand heavy use. One coin collectors'
magazine predicted that the slightest wear would obliterate the date and
the inscription Five Cents "beyond understanding."
Soon after production of Buffalo nickels began, the design was
modified. The early coins showed the bison standing on a grassy mound.
For the new version, engraver Charles Barber cut away the base of the
mound to make a straight line. He also lowered the words Five Cents so
the rim would protect them from wear.
Collectors noticed right away that the inscription was clearer. But
the changes did not help the date on the other side of the coin. Erosion
of the numerals continued to plague Buffalo nickels. Government
officials scrapped the design altogether in 1938, after it reached the
minimum statutory life of 25 years.
Millions of them once thrived across the country, but in 1938 the
Buffalo nickel became an endangered species.
At the ripe old age of 25, the Buffalo nickel had reached the minimum
statutory life of a coin design. That meant the Treasury Department
could switch to a new design without a special act of Congress. And
there were some pretty good reasons to take advantage of the
opportunity.
From the beginning, there had been complaints about using a Native
American and a bison on the coin. One collectors' magazine questioned
whether either was a good symbol of liberty, considering that many
Indians had been forced onto reservations, and the American bison had
been slaughtered to the brink of extinction.
The Mint had its own reasons for wanting a new design. After decades
of tinkering, it was still having a hard time producing nickels with all
of the detail intended by the artist. Even when they were new, some
Buffalo nickels looked as if they'd already seen years of use. When the
first Buffalo nickels were released in 1913, experts warned that the
date was in such obscure figures the slightest wear would obliterate it
"beyond understanding."
In 1938, the Treasury Department staged a competition for a new
nickel picturing Thomas Jefferson. According to a news item of the day,
the Bureau of Indian Affairs didn't receive a single complaint from
Native Americans about the design change. Collectors didn't seem to mind
either. But production of Buffalo nickels continued until the first
Jefferson nickels were struck in September. By then the Denver Mint had
turned out more than 7 million buffalo nickels that were dated 1938.
They were the last of the breed.
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