The Two Feathers variety is the most recognized error in the entire Buffalo Nickel series. It was caused when a mint worker polished the obverse die with excessive force to remove unwanted clash marks — impressions left when the dies struck each other without a planchet between them. During this aggressive polishing, the technician accidentally ground away the innermost, shortest feather from the Native American's headdress. The resulting die produced coins with only two feathers where there should be three.
To identify this variety, examine the feather area behind the chief's neck using a 10× loupe. A standard 1921 Buffalo Nickel shows three distinct feathers with defined tips. On the Two Feathers coin, the innermost feather is simply absent — not worn flat, but cleanly missing with a polished-looking surface in its place. This clean absence is the critical diagnostic: a worn-away feather looks rough and degraded; a polished-away feather looks smooth and intentional, because it was.
Both the Philadelphia (no mint mark) and San Francisco (S) versions of this variety exist and are cataloged by PCGS as FS-401. PCGS has recognized 27 distinct Two Feathers varieties across the Buffalo Nickel series. The 1921-S Two Feathers is considered among the rarest of all, categorized alongside the 1917-S as exceptionally challenging in uncirculated grades. An MS67 Philadelphia Two Feathers example sold for $7,800 at Heritage Auctions, demonstrating the real auction premiums these coins command when well-preserved.
The Doubled Die Obverse variety on the 1921 Buffalo Nickel is a subtle but genuine hub-doubling error. It arises during the die-making process when the hub is impressed into the die blank more than once with a slight rotational or lateral shift between impressions. The misaligned second impression creates a secondary ghost outline on key design elements. On the 1921 issue, the doubling is concentrated around the Native American's eyebrow and nostrils — areas with fine, shallow relief that preserve the doubled hub's imprint more clearly than the high-relief bison.
Spotting this variety requires a 10× loupe at minimum and ideally a macro lens. Look directly at the eyebrow above the Indian's eye: a normal coin shows a single crisp ridge, while the DDO shows a faint secondary ridge running roughly parallel to the primary. The nostrils similarly show split lines rather than clean singular recesses. Because the doubling is confined to fine facial detail rather than bold lettering, it is easy to overlook on a worn or mediocre-strike coin — which makes well-preserved examples doubly valuable to specialists.
The 1921 DDO is classified as a minor obverse doubled-die variety in reference guides including the Arnold numismatic catalog. It is not as spectacular as the 1916 Doubled Die Buffalo Nickel (a famous six-figure rarity), but it remains a legitimately collectible attribution. Premium amounts vary based on the clarity of doubling, overall grade, and eye appeal. Confirmed DDO attributions in circulated grades command meaningful premiums over type value, while uncirculated examples attract advanced variety collectors willing to pay substantially above base date price for a solidly attributed specimen.
The 1921 Buffalo Nickel has a documented higher-than-average incidence of lamination errors, a fact directly tied to wartime disruptions in raw material supply. During and immediately after World War I, the Philadelphia Mint changed its metal suppliers and at various points alternated between purchasing ready-made planchets from commercial vendors and producing them in-house. This inconsistency introduced impurities — gas pockets, inclusions, and layering faults — into the copper-nickel alloy, creating planchets that were structurally compromised at the microscopic level before a single coin was struck.
On the finished coin, a lamination error appears as cracks, peeling, or flaking where a layer of metal has separated from the planchet body. The delamination can occur on the obverse, reverse, or both sides simultaneously, and can range from a hairline surface crack to a large, visually dramatic flap of metal that has partially lifted away from the coin's face. Unlike damage or corrosion, lamination is a mint-originated defect — it happens inside the die chamber, not afterward in circulation.
Value for lamination errors is entirely dependent on severity and visual appeal. Minor lamination errors — small cracks with no significant material loss — typically add $20 to $50 above the coin's base grade value. More dramatic examples with large, visible peeling on a clearly identified area of the design can fetch $75 to $150 or more in circulated grades. In Mint State, a spectacular lamination on a high-grade example can attract strong specialist interest, though pristine-surface collectors tend to avoid planchet defects. The 1921 Philadelphia issue is generally the one most frequently encountered with this error due to the supplier-change documentation centered on the Philadelphia Mint.
