1923 Buffalo Nickel

After a hiatus in 1922 due to a recession, Buffalo nickels returned to the United States Mint lineup in 1923, and in decent numbers, too. More than 40 million Buffalo nickels were made that year, though none at the Denver mint, which would resume striking the five-cent coin in 1924. A breakdown by mint shows that 35,715,000 Buffalo nickels were made at the Philadelphia mint that year, while 6,142,000 were produced at the San Francisco facility. In both cases, strikes were pretty weak, but this is more particularly the case with 1923-S Buffalo nickels, which are particularly notorious for being weakly struck that year.

In terms of value, 1923 Buffalo nickels aren’t particularly pricey, at least in the case of well-circulated specimens. One can buy a 1923 Buffalo nickel for as little as $2 in a grade of Good-4, whereas the 1923-S issue costs around $8 for an example in the same condition. Prices are much higher for well-struck specimens, especially in the case of uncirculated pieces that were made in San Francisco that year. Soft strikes across the entire Buffalo nickel series are mainly due to the fact that the detail-heavy design was very difficult for dies to articulate in mass quantities. Buffalo nickel dies wore out very quickly, and were known for producing some very poor-quality coins in many cases.