It is a buffalo nickel from the year 1926. It has a strange oddity in that when you turn it around horizonatlly, the reverse side is upside-down. Either a stamping defect, or how it was supposed to be made, all I know is that no other coins today are made that way.
Hi Mr. Pink, and welcome to the forum That sounds like the standard "coin orientation". Turning the coin horizontally (picking up the right or left side and flipping it over), should result in an upside down reverse. To see the reverse rightside up, you have to turn the coin vertically, picking up the top or bottom before flipping.
I'm just not used to that, because my coins tend to, when you flip them horizonatlly, appear right-side up.
Mr. Pink Are you saying that the orentation of the obverse and reverse of the coin is different than the orientation normally found in your change. Or to say another way when you hold the coin so that the indians had is rightside up, is the buffalo also rightside up. Basically on a standard coin the reverse is 180º different than the obverse. This means that if you filp the coin over so that the bottom is rotating toward you and the top moves away from you, (vertical flip) the picture should be right side up. If you were to flip the coin so that the top of the indian head stays up by either rotating the right or left side of the coin towards you, (horizontal flip) than the revrse should appear upsidedown. Hope this clears that up. If the images are not 180º appart then you truely may have something. By the way flipping a coin so the buffalo is upside down is the only way I know of to get a buffalo to defy gravity. I know I tried with a real buffalo once. Man their heavy and smelly.
Are you in another country than the US, or are we using "horizontal" differently? All US coins are in "coin orientation", but some Canadian coins, among others, are in "medal orientation". Let me ask it this way - If you were to drill a hole above the Indian's head on your nickle (DON'T DO THIS AT HOME), would the hole on the reverse side go through the denomination, or above the Buffalo's back?
CORRECTION: . . . on a standard [United States] coin the reverse is 180º different than the obverse. Remember that much of the world uses "medal alignment" for their coins (or has in the past), so if Mr. Pink is from outside the US then a coin in "coin alignment" may seem odd to him.
The drillhole, if in the forehead, would come out under/between the buffalo's legs. Also, what's it worth?
That is the normal die alignment for almost all US coins, then. As to value, it looks like it is in VG8 (very good) condition and has a value somewhere between US$1 and US$2. Nice coin, thanks for showing it to us!
