3 legged buffalo nickel 0

[American Coin Hoarder]

Does anyone have a source or knowledge on how many 3 legged buffalo nickels exist approximately? 

[Just Bob]

One source that I found stated that there were probably around 20,000 of the three legged 1937Ds

[American Coin Hoarder]

2 minutes ago, Just Bob said:

One source that I found stated that there were probably around 20,000 of the three legged 1937Ds

Thanks for the info

[Crawtomatic]

Interesting question full of synchronicity.  I was looking at census reports the other day and it's the second, or third, most slabbed coin of the Buffalo nickel series across the big 3 TPGs.  Only in mint state does it seem to be rare.  I was questioning whether anything under EF40 was truly worth the price tag they tend to go for.

[Mohawk]

36 minutes ago, CRAWTOMATIC said:

Interesting question full of synchronicity.  I was looking at census reports the other day and it's the second, or third, most slabbed coin of the Buffalo nickel series across the big 3 TPGs.  Only in mint state does it seem to be rare.  I was questioning whether anything under EF40 was truly worth the price tag they tend to go for.

Well, that brings up the issue that very few US coins are actually rare in absolute terms.  I'd say that the 1937-D 3 leg has benefited from intense marketing of it as a rarity, as is the case with most collectible US coins that are touted as rarities, like the 1909-S VDB cent and the 1916-D Mercury Dime.  They are only rare in the terms of the present high demand for them.  The real US rarities are the ones that show up in auctions for six figures or more.  But one could argue that the fact that most US coins aren't rare contributes to their popularity because they are collectible and accessible for many collectors of different budgets.  You can build a series set of most US coins.  Not being rare isn't necessarily a bad thing.......the denarii of the two empresses I collect aren't rare (in fact Faustina the Younger is one of the most common empresses to find coins from, if not the most common when it comes to denarii), but that allows me to find many different types that are beautiful and affordable.  The same thing could be applied to US coins.

Edited June 7, 2019 by Mohawk
Added another thought