This months coin is a 1938 D PCGS MS65 Buffalo Nickel

  The Buffalo Nickel is one of America's most distinctive coins ever minted. It is considered by many as a work of art with its dominating Great Plains images - the American Indian on its obverse and the Buffalo on the reverse.  Because of its great beauty the Buffalo Nickel has become a particular favorite with coin collectors.

  The Buffalo Nickel was minted just prior to World War I to just before World War II 1913-38.  It traces its origins to an obscure law concerning when a coin design could be changed.  Charles Barber's uninspired Liberty Head nickel had been in production since 1883.  Under the Coinage Act of 1890, a change in the its design was permitted after 25 years.  Secretary of the Treasury Franklin MacVeagh, originally a Roosevelt appointee, wasn't about to pass up the opportunity.  Reminded by his son in a letter dated May, 1911 that a new nickel would be "A permanent souvenir of the most attractive sort," MacVeagh, pointedly bypassing the competent but mediocre Barber, started the process for a new design.

  The Buffalo Nickel became a reality less than two years later.  On March 4, 1913, coins from the first bag to go into circulation were presented to outgoing President Taft and 33 Indian chiefs at the groundbreaking ceremonies for the National Memorial to the North American Indian at Fort Wadsworth, New York.