After doing a lot of searching on eBay, I've noticed that for the most part, Mercury dimes are cheaper than Buffalo nickels. This is confusing because they have double face value, MUCH higher melt value due to silver content (even if nobody actually uses them to melt), and for most years there were less mercs minted than buffaloes. Why is this the case? Is there some other factor I don't know about?
It may be due to the facts that dimes are lighter in weight, and therefore don't damadge so badly in circulation, and that the high date design on Buffalo nickels caused them to wear off easily, and that the Indian and Buffalo designs have always been more popular than the Winged Liberty and Fasces designs. That's just a guess, based upon the assumption that "Merc dimes are cheaper than Buffalo nickels".
I believe the Buffalo and Indian Head design s very popular among Americans, Buffalo nickels are high in demand.
The buffalo nickel is one of the all-time classic American coins and probably the first coin that many collectors begin to collect that cannot be found among circulating coinage. At least it was for me.
well, since Mercs are one of my favorite things to collect, I don't ask questions, I jump right to the buying part
