Buffalo Nickels

I was a budding numismatist in my early teens. The concept of coin collecting was introduced to my brothers and I by our dad, Pop Klem. He had been a collector in his younger years and broke out all his coins one afternoon after decades lying fallow. With his coins spread out on the floor we compared them to the valuation lists to see what coins were good, rare, and valuable.

Dad’s enthusiasm and knowledge on the subject was contagious. He handed a few segments of his collection to each of us and said they were ours if we wanted them. My two older brothers and I were smitten.

I was just a kid then, so big ticket coins were not going to be my focus. I decided on nickels and pennies, specifically the Jefferson nickel, in circulation since 1938, and the Lincoln penny, since 1909.

At this point in my adolescence the only income I knew was my allowance for cleaning the family pool. With these meager financial means coin collecting was going to have to be creative and be carried out at rock bottom expenses.

Pop had a smart idea. Get rolls of coins at the bank at face value. A roll of 50 pennies was 50 cents and a roll of 40 nickels was $2. Buy a roll of coins, open roll, take the coins you need or want, re-roll what you don’t need, return to bank, repeat process.


1978

Dad was going to the bank and asked if I wanted a few rolls of nickels. I confirmed with a please.

He returned, handed over the eagerly awaited booty and I commenced with the unrolling. I was immediately confused at the contents . . . and very pleased! “Hey, dad, look at this!”

Two rolls of nickels. 80 coins. I was expecting Jefferson nickels, but they were not. None of them. They were all Buffalo nickels! Buffalo nickels were minted from 1913 to 1938. They were not necessarily rare coins, although they’d been out of circulation for many years, but each was certainly worth more than a nickel. I filled out what I needed in my collection book and put the rest of the buffalo nickels in a jar. The Buffalos, I still have them.


A lingering afterthought, ‘I should have requested more rolls.’
-klem