UtahRich:
So is it an Indian Head Nickel or a Buffalo Nickel?

The Lincoln 1¢ piece is about the only wrong-way coins we have that we still refer to by the obverse. For those of us in the detecting world, we either find a penny, a 'Memorial' Penny or a 'Wheat-back' Penny. You've already clarified the modern and often eaten-up 'Zinc' Penny is just junk metal. So we seldom call it a 'Lincoln', but instead we refer to the obverse side if it isn't junk metal by saying we found a 'Wheat-Back' or 'Memorial'.

But what do I mean when I said "wrong-way" coins? Well, we have coins like these:

Flying Eagle Cents
Indian Head Cents
Buffalo Five Cents, most Jefferson Five Cents
Seated Liberty in different Denominations
Mercury Dimes
Roosevelt Dimes
Walking Liberty Halves
Franklin Halves
Kennedy halves
Morgan Dollars
Peace Dollars
Eisenhower Dollars

In all these examples, the Flying Eagle and Buffalo, just like the obverse faces, are all looking or headed "the correct way" ... left, or off to the West.

The Standing Liberty Quarter is confused and didn't know which was to go.

The Lincoln Cent, the Indian Head 5 Cent (aka Buffalo) are usually not referred to by their obverse and are facing 'the wrong ay" ... to the East. The Barber Dime, Quarter and Half are also facing to the right, or East, but we are not calling them by the name of the President or by the name of an American icon. Nope. We are calling them a 'Barber' because Charles E. Barber was the Chief Mint Engraver. So they not only face the wrong direction that Greely figured we ought to head, but we call them a name that has nothing to do with th obverse or reverse depictions.

Also, we tend to like to keep things simple in life and even though Indian is 2 syllables and Head is 1 combining to make 3 total syllables, and the word Buffalo is 3 syllables, I think our mind plays tricks on us and it is 'simpler' to say the 2-word name of Buffalo Nickel than it is to say the 3-word name of Indian Head Nickel due to the hesitant pause between the words.

Now, I will add this in closing. Considering BOTH the Obverse and Reverse images, I have always considered the Indian Head / Buffalo Nickel to be one of our all-time handsomest coins.

Monte

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