1918/7-D
BUFFALO NICKEL NGC MS64 Click on Coin Image to
enlarge
Important
1918/7-D 5C Buffalo NGC MS64 - $75,000.00
1918/7-D Buffalo
Nickel - 1918/7-D Buffalo 5C NGC MS64. Considered
to be true Americana this famous Buffalo Nickel Overdate
is among the 20th Centuries most prized numismatic
treasures. NGC shows a mere 14 1918/7-D Buffalo Nickel
in MS64, not including how many resubmissions as the
NGC price guide shows $87,500 in MS-64 and a jump
to $161,500 in MS-64+ and over a quarter of a million
dollars at $265,000.00 in MS-65. We think our 1918/7-D
in MS-64 is a great value at $75,000.
Please contact me by email
or telephone 1-941-291-2156
to reserve this great coin.
Here is a rare, near-Gem 1918/7 overdate
Buffalo Nickel that is a key to the series. The coin
is well struck with full details on the Indian’s
hair above the tie on the braid, the fur on the bison’s
head, and the fur “line” above its shoulders
on its back. The reverse legends are also strong and
sharp. The coin is toned with a light russet obverse
and a light golden reverse. Beneath this toning, glows
original mint luster. It along with the colors assures
the coin’s originality. The surfaces are clean
for the grade with no notable abrasion marks or other
distractions. The overdate is easily visible without
the aid of magnification.
James Earle Fraser designed the Indian
Head or Buffalo nickel. The design shows a close profile
of an Indian brave facing right. It takes up most of
the coin’s surfaces. The Indian’s feathers
are in his hair, and his braids are tied with string.
LIBERTY is at the edge between 2:00 and 3:00. The date
is at the lower left on the Indian’s shoulder.
The buffalo, more correctly the bison, is facing left.
Its design is from edge to edge. It stands on a slight
rise of ground with a straight line below it. UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA is in an arc at the top edge and E
PLURIBUS UNUM is in very small letters to the right
of the bison’s hump. The denomination, written
as FIVE CENTS is under the raised ground at the bottom.
The mintmark is on the reverse below the denomination.
Fraser was an American sculptor who
was born in Minnesota. How fitting it was that he
designed the Norse-American medal. Fraser was born
in Winona, Minnesota. His father was a railroad engineer.
He was one of a group sent out to recover the remains
of Custer’s 7th Cavalry Regiment following his
loss to Indians at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Many of James Fraser’s works show his exposure
to frontier life and Indians. He began carving figures
from limestone. At age fourteen, he began to take
classed at the Art Institute of Chicago. At the Columbian
Exposition, he was involved in the production of architectural
sculptures. In 1895, while studying in Paris at Ecole
des Beaux-Arts, Frasier met Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
He won a competition that Saint-Gaudens was judging.
Saint-Gaudens hired Fraser to assist him on his General
Sherman Monument that was erected at the entrance
to Central Park in New York City. In 1902, after working
for Saint-Gaudens for four years, Fraser set up his
own studio in New York. He taught at the Art Students’
League. Much of Fraser’s early work was from
referrals from Saint-Gaudens who was always over-booked.
In 1913 his best known work, the Indian
Head or Buffalo nickel, was minted. That same year he
married a former student, Laura Gardin. She became his
partner and was a highly respected sculptor herself.
They collaborated on the Oregon Trail Memorial Half
Dollar commemorative that was first issued in 1926.
She designed the obverse and he the reverse. Fraser
also designed the Victory Medal in 1919 celebrating
the end of World War I as well as the Navy Cross. In
1915 he designed the “End of the Trail,”
a piece for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition
in San Francisco. During the early 20th century, his
style changed from impressionistic realism inherited
from Saint-Gaudens to a more modern less complicated
style. At the end of the World War I his attention turned
to larger works, public monuments and architectural
sculpture. His last major work was “The Peaceful
Arts” for the Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington,
D.C.
The Denver Mint struck its first coins
in 1906. It is still operating and producing coins
for circulation as well as commemorative and bullion
coins. Coins produced at the Denver Mint bear a D
mintmark, not to be confused with the D for the Dahlonega
Mint, which operated in Georgia until 1861 when it
was taken over by the Confederacy. The predecessors
of the Denver Mint were the men of Clark Gruber and
Company. During the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, they coined
gold dust brought from the gold fields by the miners.
For almost three years, they minted gold coins (1860–61)
and ingots (1862). They were formally bought by the
United States government in 1863. Established by an
Act of Congress on April 21, 1862, the United States
Mint at Denver opened for business in late 1863 as
a United States Assay Office. Operations began in
the facilities of Clark, Gruber and Company, located
at 16th and Market Streets and acquired by the government
for $25,000. In 1904 the government converted the
Assay Office into a working mint. A large Italian
Renaissance style building was erected. In its first
year of operation, the new mint produced 167,371,035
gold and silver coins. Today the Mint’s output
can exceed 50 million coins a day.
During the last few years of World War
I, the Mint produced much larger quantities of cents
and nickels. Many researchers believe that this increased
production led to confusion at the Mint. A hub from
1917 was used for a 1918 one during the annealing process
causing the overdate. It was not until the 1930s that
this error was discovered, which explain why most 1918
overdates are found today in circulated condition. The
same error was made on the 1942/1 Mercury Dime.
