Lot 218
1913 Buffalo Nickel Type I San Francisco
Sold December 11, 2025
- Price realized
- $225
Price realized is the winning bid (hammer price) and excludes buyer’s premium.
About this lot
Estimated Value: $500-2,000
Origin: United States
Denomination: Five Cents
Year: 1913
Mint: San Francisco
Grade/Condition: MS
Metal: Silver
Weight (+/- 0.2g): Estimated: 8.0 Grams
Additional Description: The 1913 Buffalo Nickel Type I from the San Francisco Mint holds a special place at the beginning of one of America’s most beloved coin series. Designed by sculptor James Earle Fraser, the coin captures a vision of the American West that was already fading from daily life. On the obverse, a powerful composite portrait of a Native American conveys dignity and realism, while the reverse presents an American bison standing proudly on a raised mound of earth, the hallmark of the short-lived Type I design.
The San Francisco issues of 1913 are admired for their distinct mintmark and for the quality of their striking, often showing crisp detail and pleasing texture. Yet the design’s beauty brought challenges: the raised elements of the mound wore quickly in circulation, prompting the Mint to modify the reverse later that same year to create the more recessed Type II variety.
As the inaugural year of the series, the 1913-S Type I Buffalo Nickel embodies both artistic ambition and historical resonance. It reflects the nation’s early twentieth-century fascination with its frontier heritage, rendered in a coin that remains one of the most expressive and sculptural pieces ever struck by the United States Mint.
Lot details
- Lot
- 218
- Auction
- Gold and Silver Showcase
- Closed
- December 11, 2025
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