CoinsBuffalo Nickels, 1913–1938 → 1921-S Buffalo Nickel

1921-S Buffalo Nickel

Key dateSan Francisco Mint
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Why this coin matters

The 1921-S Buffalo Nickel was struck at the San Francisco Mint with a recorded mintage of 1,557,000 coins — the 6th-lowest of the 64 circulation-strike issues in the buffalo nickel series, and 13% of the 12,220,000 buffalo nickels the Mint produced across all facilities in 1921.

The series skipped 1922 entirely, and this San Francisco issue closed the gap - heavily circulated on the west coast and prized with a full date.

A full collector's note for this issue — survival, strike character, and what to check before buying — is on the writing schedule; the figures above are the permanent record.

Mintage: the 1921 buffalo nickel, mint by mint

IssueMintMintage
1921 Buffalo NickelPhiladelphia10,663,000
1921-S Buffalo NickelSan Francisco1,557,000

The 1921-S in its series

Sources

Mintage figures: United States Mint (Annual Report of the Director of the Mint), Royal Canadian Mint records, and — for the 1935 banknote issue — Bank of Canada printage records as published in the Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Government Paper Money, cross-checked across independent published references. Specifications: United States Mint coin specifications.

The mintage is the only number that never changes. This is where it lives.