At Bullion Shark we offer all five different kinds of nickels that were ever produced in the United States. These nickels date all the way back to the first nickel produced by the U.S. mint (The Three-Cent Nickel), all the way to our present-day nickels (The Jefferson Nickels). These nickels all have many differences such as their design and their face value.
The first nickel minted by the U.S. Mint that had a five cent denomination was the Shield nickel. The Shield Nickel started the tradition of having a copper-nickel alloy in all of our nickels. Before that was the Three-cent nickel which was originally called the “Copper-nickel three-cent piece”, but was later changed. After the Shield nickel the United States Mint switched to the V nickel because of minting issues with the Shield Nickel. Thereafter came the Buffalo nickel in 1913. The Buffalo Nickel was loved by everybody because of its design, featuring a Native American on the obverse and a buffalo on the reverse. Lastly, in 1938 came the Jefferson nickel which is still minted today.
The different types of nickels that we offer are the following:
Three-cent nickel: 1865-1889
Shield nickel: 1866-1883
V nickel: 1883-1912
Buffalo nickel: 1913-1938
Jefferson nickel 1938-1964 (War Nickels from 1942-1945 were 35% silver)