1931-S Buffalo Nickel

Description

1931-S 5C Buffalo Nickel

Mint Location: San Francisco

-Uncirculated

The 1931-S is a very interesting coin.  The original mintage of 1,200,000 makes it the second lowest mintage Buffalo nickel, after the 1926-S (970,000 originally minted). But the 1931-S is rare in circulated grades but not that rare in mint state.  The 1931-S Buffalo was such a low mintage that quite a few uncirculated specimens were put away in the year of issue. In fact, there may be more uncirculated examples in existence than circulated ones. (This low mintage saving phenonium was repeated years later with the 1950-D Jefferson nickel, another issue that’s rarer circulated than uncirculated.)

According to a notice in the June 1934 issue of The Numismatist (p. 416), collectors could still purchase Uncirculated 1931-S Buffalo Nickels directly from the U.S. Treasury for “the face value of the coins and an amount sufficient to cover the mail charges by first-class mail.”

A great coin for your collection!