1913-S Type 2 Buffalo Nickel
Semi-keyThe lowest mintage of 1913 and the third lowest of the entire series. San Francisco struck barely more than a million before the year ended, and the coins circulated, so it is scarce in every grade.
Mintage
- Business strikes
- 1,209,000
- Mint
- San Francisco (S)
- Mintage rank
- 3 of 64
Rank 1 is the lowest business-strike mintage in the series. Mintage is what the Mint produced, not what survives. These circulated for decades as everyday money, and on this design the date wore off before almost anything else, so a large share of what survives cannot be attributed to a year at all.
Reading the figure
Among the 22 San Francisco issues in the series it is the 3rd smallest. Of the 73,656,186 struck across all mints in 1913, this issue accounts for 2%. Philadelphia struck 26 times as many that year. The 1913 split ran Philadelphia 30,992,000, Philadelphia 29,857,186, Denver 5,337,000, Denver 4,156,000, San Francisco 2,105,000 and San Francisco 1,209,000. The series median is 9,418,000, so fewer than half as many of these were struck as a typical date.
Every sentence above is computed from the mintage table on this page, not asserted separately.
Scarcity tier
Semi-key
Assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 is a key date, under 2,500,000 is a semi-key.
This is a reproducible label derived from the mintage column, not a market valuation and not a Coin Curator price opinion. The same thresholds apply to every series on this site. Several dates are far harder or far easier to obtain than their mintage implies; where that is true, it is stated above.
Recent sold prices
Last checked Sep 16, 2026 · most recent sale Sep 15, 2026What certified 1913-S Type 2 Buffalo nickels actually sold for on eBay in the last 90 days, grouped by grade band. Every figure below is a completed sale of a PCGS, NGC or ANACS coin in a straight grade. This is a record of what changed hands, not a price guide, an appraisal, or a prediction of what yours is worth.
Good to Fine
PO1 to F15$274
Median of 9 sales
- Lowest
- $208
- Highest
- $336
The 4 most recent sales
- $250PCGS G4 · Sep 15, 20261913-S Buffalo Nickel 5c PCGS G04 Type 2
- $249PCGS G6 · Sep 14, 20261913-S Buffalo Nickel 5c PCGS G06 Type 2 Harder Straight Grade
- $336PCGS F15 · Aug 21, 20261913 S BUFFALO NICKEL 5C TYPE 2 F15 PCGS VALUE $375
- $300NGC VG8 · Aug 20, 20261913-S Type 2 Buffalo Nickel : NGC VG08
Seller titles, verbatim. An ended eBay listing stays readable for about 90 days, so older links will expire.
Very Fine to XF
VF20 to XF45$535
Median of 9 sales
- Lowest
- $341
- Highest
- $650
The 4 most recent sales
- $650NGC XF40 · Sep 9, 20261913 S TYPE 2 Buffalo Nickel NGC Graded XF 40 Key Date Certified #2676362-003
- $576PCGS XF45 · Sep 2, 20261913 S TYPE 2 BUFFALO NICKEL PCGS XF 45
- $375NGC VF25 · Aug 19, 20261913-S Type 2 🔥 KEY DATE 🦬 Buffalo Nickel 5C NGC VF25 Cert #8452493-002
- $341NGC VF20 · Aug 18, 20261913-S Type 2 Buffalo Nickel, NGC VF20 - Nice Original Coin
Seller titles, verbatim. An ended eBay listing stays readable for about 90 days, so older links will expire.
About Uncirculated
AU50 to AU58$926
Median of 3 sales
- Lowest
- $825
- Highest
- $997
The 3 most recent sales
- $825NGC AU55 · Jul 5, 20261913-S Type 2 Buffalo Nickel from the San Francisco Mint Graded AU55 by NGC
- $997PCGS AU58 · Jul 2, 20261913 S Nickel Indian Head or Buffalo PCGS AU-58 Type 2
- $926PCGS AU58 · Jun 29, 20261913-S PCGS AU 58 Type 2 Sharp Horn Buffalo Nickel TY 2 SLABZ
Seller titles, verbatim. An ended eBay listing stays readable for about 90 days, so older links will expire.
How to read these
- The median is the middle sale after removing outliers. The range is every sale kept, including the outliers, so you can see how wide the market actually is.
- Grade drives most of the difference. A band with three sales tells you far less than a band with thirty, and the count is shown so you can weigh it.
- Sales of coins in “Details”, “Genuine” or cleaned holders are excluded, as are proofs, replicas, lots, and mounted coins. Those sell at prices that would not describe the coin on this page.
- So is any sale priced below what this same date fetches in a lower grade, which is impossible for a real coin and is how a counterfeit in a convincing holder gives itself away.
Coin Curator does not grade, authenticate, or appraise coins, and holds no licensed price guide or population data. How this data is collected.
The date wears off first. Fraser placed the date on a raised shoulder of the obverse, where it took the full force of circulation. Read the full note on the series page.
What to check before buying
Specific to the 1913-S Type 2:
- 1Confirm the reverse type before anything else: the Type 1 San Francisco coin has nearly twice the mintage and is a different issue entirely.
- 2The date sits on a raised shoulder that wore away faster than anything else on the coin, so dateless Buffalo nickels are extremely common. Confirm the date is genuinely struck and readable rather than restored with acid, which leaves a pitted, dull patch around the digits.
And for any certified coin
Verify the certification number on the grading service’s own lookup rather than from a photograph of the label, match the listing images to the certification record including grade and any variety attribution, look for cleaning, compare the mintmark against published photographs of the genuine issue, and read the return policy before buying. The grading guide covers each of these in full.
Coin Curator does not grade, authenticate, or appraise coins, and holds no licensed price guide or population data. Where this page shows recent sold prices, they are records of completed eBay sales, not a valuation of any particular coin. These are verification steps, not an appraisal.
Verify a certification number
Look a 1913-S Type 2 certification number up on the service’s own site. A photograph of a label proves nothing.
Each service publishes its own guarantee with conditions and exclusions. Compare PCGS, NGC and ANACS.
Find a 1913-S Type 2 for sale
Opens an eBay search for this exact date and mint. Coin Curator does not list inventory, hold stock, or set prices; verify each listing, seller, and return policy directly.
Affiliate link: Coin Curator may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Disclosure.
Common questions
How many 1913-S Type 2 Buffalo nickels were minted?
The San Francisco Mint struck 1,209,000 1913-S Type 2 Buffalo nickels for circulation. That is the 3rd lowest business-strike mintage of the 64 date and mintmark combinations in the series.
Is the 1913-S Type 2 Buffalo nickel a key date?
Coin Curator labels it a semi-key, assigned from reported mintage alone: under 750,000 struck is a key date and under 2,500,000 is a semi-key. The same thresholds are used for every series on this site, so the tiers are comparable between them. That label describes production, not market value or how hard the coin is to find today. The lowest mintage of 1913 and the third lowest of the entire series. San Francisco struck barely more than a million before the year ended, and the coins circulated, so it is scarce in every grade.
What should I check before buying a 1913-S Type 2 Buffalo nickel?
Verify the certification number on the grading service's own lookup page, match the listing photographs to the certification record, check for cleaning, and compare the mintmark shape and position against published photographs of the genuine issue. Confirm the reverse type before anything else: the Type 1 San Francisco coin has nearly twice the mintage and is a different issue entirely.
Related dates
Guides for this coin
All guides →Buffalo Nickel Key Dates & Varieties
1913-1938. James Earle Fraser design. Half a dozen famous key dates, two iconic die varieties (Three-Legged Buffalo, Two-Feathers), and one of the most beloved aesthetics in US coinage.
2 min readEducationError Coins: Types, Attribution, and Verification
Learn the difference between off-center strikes, doubled dies, mules, broadstrikes, and post-mint damage, plus the records to check before buying.
1 min readBuying GuideHow to Spot a Counterfeit or Doctored Coin
Use weight, dimensions, surfaces, mintmark details, holder inspection, and certification records as screening checks. Learn the warning signs of altered coins and fake slabs.
1 min readBuying GuideMS-63 vs MS-65 vs MS-67: Which Grade to Actually Buy
Adjacent grades can carry very different market evidence. Learn how to compare surfaces, eye appeal, population data, and current records before choosing a grade.
1 min readMintage sources
Mintage figures are U.S. Mint production records, cross-checked against the published tables below on 2026-08-01. Where those tables disagree, the disagreement is disclosed on the affected page rather than resolved silently.
- LandOfCoins, Buffalo nickel mintage — Business strikes and proofs in separate columns. Used as the business-strike figures here.
- CoinMintages.com, Buffalo nickel mintages — Agrees on every branch-mint issue except the 1913-S Type 2. Its Philadelphia figures include that year's proofs.
- PCGS CoinFacts and dealer references, 1913-S Type 2 — Consulted to break the one disagreement between the tables above.
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