Return of the buffalo nickel
By TOM ISERN
© Plains Folk
On Feb. 28 the United States Mint placed its new buffalo nickel on sale via its website. I put in my order for two rolls that same day and received the message they were on back order. This new coin is a hit already.
It's the third in a series of new nickels begun last year, the Westward Journey Nickel Series, intended to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase and the Corps of Discovery. A profile of Thomas Jefferson appears on the other side of each coin. The new buffalo side features, of course, a bison on a patch of grass, along with the legend, "United States of America / E Pluribus Unum / Five Cents." The bison, a consummate herd animal, is a splendid representation of the motto, "E Pluribus Unum," although if that was the intent, the depiction should have been a cow rather than a bull.
Press releases make no mention of a designer of the new coin, which may be just as well, for the designer of the old buffalo nickel, minted in the years 1913-1938, received a good measure of public criticism. From the first critics said his buffalo had odd posture, that the head drooped unnaturally. In recent years bison ranchers have pointed out that the hindquarters of the numismatic beast are wretchedly slender, which they attribute to the fact that Black Diamond, the model, was a product of inbreeding in the Bronx Zoo.
Comparing the new coin with the old, however, the reason for the deformity of the old buffalo is obvious. The designer wanted the image of the animal to be as large as possible. In order to fit him on the round coin, then, he drooped the head and shrank the hindquarters. Users of the new nickel will see that the form of the bison is much improved.
The designer of the old buffalo nickel was James Earle Fraser. This is the same guy who did the famous sculpture, "End of the Trail," now featured in the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City. Fraser, born in 1876 in Winona, Minn., grew up in Mitchell, S.D., and thus claimed an affinity with western images.
Fraser for a time was an apprentice to Irish-born sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the fellow who convinced President Theodore Roosevelt the country needed new designs for its $10 and $20 gold pieces. Saint-Gaudens' gold coins were striking, but because the artist insisted on high relief, they did not stack well, so that eventually the mint altered his designs. The original buffalo nickel also would have technical design problems, especially in relation to vending machines, stemming from Fraser's artistic specifications.
It was Secretary of the Treasury Franklin MacVeagh, a Roosevelt appointee, who commissioned Fraser, Saint-Gaudens' protégé, to design the buffalo nickel. Not only the buffalo on the coin but also the Indian head on the other side was the object of controversy. Fraser said he made up the profile as a composite of three models: a Cheyenne named Two Moons, a Sioux (Dakota, Lakota?) named Iron Tail, and a third one he could not remember.
Subsequently a Seneca named Big Tree presented himself to the public as the unknown model. This seemed plausible, since Fraser then recalled using an Indian of that name, but it turns out that the Seneca Big Tree, like several other pretenders, was a fraud. Fraser finally recalled that his Big Tree was a Kiowa.
Coin dealers concur that in recent years the old buffalo nickel has been a hot item, a favorite among both serious and casual collectors. That popularity, along with the enthusiastic reception for the new nickel, testifies to the enduring appeal of this great American beast, the buffalo.
