Description
Buffalo nickel set in deer antler with a ruby to symbolize blood shed. Custom Elk antler eagle feather tips with ruby bead accents. On round stitched black suede leather.
Officially known as the Indian Head Nickel, the Buffalo nickel enjoyed a 25-year run from 1913 to 1938. It featured a classic Native American visage on one side and a side view of a hefty American bison on the other. Designed the year before its introduction by sculptor James Fraser, the idea was to improve the looks of U.S. coinage following the introduction of the Lincoln copper penny in 1909.
Though most Americans view the Indian wars and the winning of the west as 19th century events, the fact is that historians today view the conflict as not having ended until 1924. The last official battle, known as the Battle of Bear Valley, took place in southern Arizona in 1918, and peace was not universally declared for another six years.
As for the sculptor Fraser, he grew up in South Dakota and was well aware of the Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee battlefields nearby. His sympathies towards the native tribes were manifested in 1915 with the creation of his iconic “The End of the Trail” sculpture showing a bowed warrior slumped over an exhausted horse. That image remains among the most famous and powerful of all time.
