1919 5C Buffalo Nickel, PCGS MS66 - Registry Set Candidate

NGC Coin Explorer tells us, "The mintage of this issue was enormous, though its record would be broken the following year. The booming wartime economy, combined with the imposition of temporary taxes during those years, greatly boosted the need for small value coins. 1919(P) nickels are plentiful across all grades through MS 65.... Starting with this year, all Buffalo Nickels have their dates rendered in slightly thicker and much more deeply cut numerals. By 1919 it was already evident that millions of these coins were destined to become dateless, so the Mint took remedial action that helped only slightly." In its elevated grade of MS66, this specimen is conditionally rarity.

It was in 1911 that renowned sculptor James Earle Fraser heard that a new nickel design was being sought by U.S. Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeagh. Fraser contacted and later met with Mint Director George E. Roberts and other mint officials. “I realize that no definite commission has been given me in regard to the designs for the new coins,” wrote Fraser to MacVeagh, but nonetheless he acted as if it were a fait accompli. Continuing, the designer wrote that the "idea of the Indian and the buffalo on the same coin is without doubt, purely American and seems to be singularly appropriate to have on one of our national coins …Therefore, I should like to ask whether or not you would consider placing these designs on the new model."