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Why Do We Call it a BUFFALO Nickel, and not a BISON Nickel?
BuffaloIronTail
Posts: 7,413 ✭✭✭✭✭
Inquiring minds want to know.
"I tell them there's no problems.....only solutions" - John Lennon
Why Do We Call it a BUFFALO Nickel, and not a BISON Nickel?
This is a public poll: others will see what you voted for.
3
Comments
Personally I believe that it would be silly to call it a "Buffalison", or a "Bisonuffalo".
Pete
Why do we call you "BuffaloIronTail" and not "BisonIronTail"?
If we went with "Bison" we'd have to change too many things: Bison, NY; bison wings; the lyrics "Oh give me a home. where the bison roam" (does not sound right - missing a syllable).
I guess it's slang.
I even caught myself using the word "penny" the other day.
P.S. - I allowed them to change "Bombay" to "Mumbai", and they slipped the change by me when they went from "Peking" to "Beijing", but I'll have to stand firm on "buffalo",
Probably because folks did not know the difference between a Bison and a Buffalo? Breen wrote that most don't know/didn't recognize the difference. Put me into the second group until I became more informed. Nevertheless, I still call them Buffalo nickels.
Because
then what ..... What a Buff > What a Bis ?
Properly it would be an American Bison (bison bison) to differentiate it from the European Bison or Wisent. I think it must have something to do with Buffalo Bill and his wild west show even tho it was known as a buffalo before that.
JBK has some excellent points above.
Actually, I prefer to call the nickel issues of 1913-1938, "Indian" nickels. i'm okay with calling the pennies issued 1909-1958 "wheat ear" pennies though. Go figure.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
I have the same problem........
Pete
Indeed he was.
Nickname
"Buffalo Bill," nicknamed after his contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo meat
Cody received the nickname "Buffalo Bill" after the American Civil War, when he had a contract to supply Kansas Pacific Railroad workers with buffalo (American bison) meat.[19] Cody is purported to have killed 4,282 buffalo in eighteen months in 1867 and 1868.[9] Cody and another hunter, Bill Comstock, competed in an eight-hour[15] buffalo-shooting match over the exclusive right to use the name, which Cody won by killing 68 animals to Comstock's 48.[20] Comstock, part Cheyenne and a noted hunter, scout, and interpreter, used a fast-shooting Henry repeating rifle, while Cody competed with a larger-caliber Springfield Model 1866, which he called Lucretia Borgia, after the notorious beautiful, ruthless Italian noblewoman, the subject of a popular contemporary Victor Hugo opera Lucrezia Borgia. Cody explained that while his formidable opponent, Comstock, chased after his buffalo, engaging from the rear of the herd and leaving a trail of killed buffalo "scattered over a distance of three miles", Cody—likening his strategy to a billiards player "nursing" his billiard balls during "a big run"—first rode his horse to the front of the herd to target the leaders, forcing the followers to one side, eventually causing them to circle and create an easy target, and dropping them close together.[21]
When the American Bison was first viewed by white explorers they had no references to do their research (pre-google days I think). So, they looked at it and studied it for a couple of weeks, smoked some good weed, drank a little sloe gin and then decided it was close enough to a Buffalo that that is what they'd call it. And thus it became widely known as the Buffalo of the great plains (although it was found in Canadian and Alasakan forests, too). Being a high, drunk, misplaced newby was the problem and solution, too.
bob
Because it was designed as an American Indian and an American Buffalo....
None of the above.
Most people don't think of the word "bison" when they see an animal that looks like a buffalo.
It is what it is !!!
Most all of us call it a Buffalo Nickel..."Just Deal with It"...Great answer. Most all of us call it a Penny..."Just Deal with it".
CC
I saw a Buffalo once; or was it a Bison?
Cliff Claven: Yep the ol' Buffalo, Bison conundrum. Funny you should ask that question. Interesting enough the gestation periods are 17 days shorter in Europe for the Buffalo as opposed to the Bison of North America. This combined with the colder North American climate results in a much finer exotic mushroom during the spring thaw picking season. This ancient ritual of the a wannahigh indians of Colorado and the fact that this isn't really funny anyways makes me want another Sammy
In the world of U.S. paper they ARE called Bison...just sayin'.
cuzzzzzz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KI-8hst0bho
Maybe common vernacular similar to "penny" vs "cent." ?
Well when I was a young-un, the old folk would call them Indian Head Nickels. I think that was proper PC back then.
As @Soldi mentioned, the Wannahigh's made good use of not only the pie-shrooms but smoked-pies when the buffalo grazed on peyote fields.
Thicker Bison hide means they strike up a little week sometimes.
For the same reason we call it a "Buffalo Chip" and not a "Bison Chip"
Why is it we can call the "one Cent" an Indian Head Penny and we do not call the Nickel by it's five cent value as an "Indian Head Nickel"? I guess the Buff's is just a shorter way of saying it.
Because CAC tells us so and that is good enough for me.
I guess we shouldn't be buffaloed into calling it a bison.
That's what happens when we let a bunch of 17th Century French fur traders name a new (to them) animal species. They came up with boeufs, meaning "ox". Oh well, at least they make up for it with their wine.
You should ask dealers the next time you go to a show if they have any Bison nickels in stock? You have to make sure that you keep a poker face the whole time. I bet you would get some weird looks!
'cause that I just the way it is.
'Tradition'
BHNC #203
Why do we call Buffalo wings that when they are made of chicken?
They sure don't taste like buffalo, or bison.
This is just one more thing I have never thought about....
I suppose if I were bored, wandering around the house with nothing to do, and found a Buff nickel on the floor, I might sit down right there and begin to ponder the mystery of popular vernacular.... That has not happened yet... 
Cheers, RickO
The Mint calls the gold coin of the same design "American Buffalo".
this
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
Go Bison Bills!
I didn't know Buffalo had wings.
Pete
It's a good thing they don't.
Like someone else said, why not call it an Indian nickel? All the others are named for the obverse, why not this one? lol
Honestly, it really only matters to another Buffalo (Bison)
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
It is because historically North Americans referred to the Bison as Buffalo incorrectly way before the nickel.
I bet you thought the earth was ROUND too!
all around collector of many fine things
If it's good enough for them it's good enough for me
Steve
What’s a Bison?
They are called buffalo wings because they originated in Buffalo, NY. Also, buffalos don't have wings.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
At least the CSX Railroad knows the difference.
They classify and make up trains at "Bison Yard" in Buffalo, New York.
Pete
A lot of then don't even have full horns.....................
Pete
Not quite . . .
wheat cents
peace dollars
gold, silver, platinum, palladium eagles
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
I meant nickels... lol
Okay . . .
westward journey nickels (2004-2005)
My Adolph A. Weinman signature
Well, according to the Wiki entry, Buffalo appears to be a colloquial name for a Bubalina (Water Buffalo), Bison, or a Ictiobus (Buffalo fish). So to me, both Buffalo and Bison are correct. "Mercury" dime, on the other had, is clearly incorrect
yeah ....... the buff collector is posting again
Welcome back
I don't care what anyone calls it today, Winged Liberty, etc. etc. Like the Buffalo Nickel................
It will ALWAYS be a "Mercury" Dime.
Pete
And welcome back Mr. Hounddog.