You probably know about the famous 1937-D Three-Legged Nickel and maybe even the 1936-D 3 1/2-Legged Nickel. (If not, you can learn about them here.) But did you know about the rarity 1913 3-1/2 Legged Buffalo Nickel (Type 1)?
All three of these desired varieties happened because of polishing of the dies in an attempt to lengthen the life of the working die. As a result, parts of the buffalo’s legs have been removed.
The 1913 3-1/2 Nickel is missing much of the front leg. It is not nearly as obvious as the 1937-D Three-Legged coin.
Ron Guth, a long-time PCGS chronicler, writes, “This is a rare variety that has proven to be difficult to find in most grades.” He notes that a PCGS MS64 “splashed onto the market in 2003 and sold for $19,550 at auction. A year later, an NGC MS65 sold at auction for $47,437.50. In early 2017, PCGS certified an MS66 example which has yet to come to market (as of 2/2017).”
Those values are less today as more have been found. But they are still pricey!
Now that we know about its history, let’s take a look at the markers. Below is a beautiful MS64 example.
You want to look above the “I” in “FIVE.”
Here’s an expanded example:
As always, be wary of others selling worn examples of a regular 1913 Type I Nickel and calling it 3 1/2 legs, as below:
If you are interested in collecting Buffalo Nickel errors and varieties, check out our directory:
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You can find more information about types, varieties, errors, grading, bidding and buying in Coin News Updated: The Essential Guide to Online Bidding. Please consider buying or gifting the work for a friend, as it underwrites this hobbyist blog. Thank you.
