should i?
Historical · United States
1913 Type 1 Buffalo nickel
A Native American portrait and a bison standing on a mound. Toss the distinctive first-year Type 1 Buffalo nickel design.
Flip this coin →Free to flip. Two sides. Equal chances.
The story behind the coin
The paired photographs identify this coin as the 1913 Type 1 Buffalo nickel. On its reverse, the bison stands on a raised mound and FIVE CENTS sits within that mound. This detail distinguishes the Type 1 design from the later Type 2 reverse. The worn-looking relief in these source images is retained instead of being redrawn.
Which side is heads?
- Heads
- A right-facing Native American portrait with LIBERTY and the date 1913.
- Tails
- A bison on a mound with FIVE CENTS beneath it.
A different coin. The same fair toss.
The artwork changes, but every virtual toss still has a 50/50 chance of heads or tails. We simulate the movement; the result is chosen independently. This is not a simulation of the physical balance of a historical coin.
Photos: Brandon Grossardt · Public domain. Images cropped/resized and converted to WebP; coin artwork unchanged. View source record ↗