The Skinwalker Nickel 

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Growing up with mixed parentage is often a challenge. Feeling as though you don’t fully belong in either world can leave a person longing to better understand the less celebrated side of their heritage. My father’s side of the family hails from Southern California, half Baja Mexican and half Kumeyaay, or Mission Indian. One of my fondest memories of that heritage comes from a long drive through the Mojave Desert somewhere outside Barstow. My father, a serious man by nature, turned to an impatient 8-year-old who had spent nearly 12 hours in the car and asked, “Have I ever told you about the Skinwalker?” Naturally, I wanted to hear more. Anything was better than staring out the window. What followed, however, left me terrified for months and sleeping with the lights on for at least a year. Although I didn’t know it yet, an unusual Buffalo nickel and this terrifying tale would come back to haunt me years later.

Legend of the Skinwalker

The Skinwalker is not a Kumeyaay tradition, but one rooted in Navajo belief. Even today, it is a subject many Navajo prefer not to discuss openly. According to tradition, a Skinwalker is a witch who has abandoned the moral path in exchange for extraordinary powers, including the ability to assume the form of animals—or, more unsettling still,people.

Stories tell of coyotes that stand a little too tall, wolves that move in unnatural ways, or a familiar face whose eyes seem strangely empty. The terror lies not in what they are, but in what they are not. A Skinwalker is something that almost looks right. That subtle wrongness has haunted campfire stories across the American Southwest for generations.

A Skinwalker is a witch who has abandoned the moral path in exchange for extraordinary powers…

An Unusual Buffalo Nickel

Nearly three decades later, one of my colleagues dropped a Buffalo nickel on my desk for submission to Professional Coin Grading Service. The moment I picked it up, I wasn’t looking at a Buffalo nickel anymore. I was 8 years old again, somewhere outside Barstow. This wasn’t simply an unusual mint error—it was unsettling.

The familiar portrait of James Earle Fraser’s Native American had become something different altogether. A dramatic double striking had left behind a distorted face with exaggerated features and an uncanny expression. Turn the unusual Buffalo nickel over and the majestic American bison fared little better, transformed into a hulking, misshapen creature that scarcely resembled the powerful animal Fraser intended. The effect is so bizarre that it is difficult to believe it was created by nothing more than a mechanical mishap inside the coining press.

Of course, there is nothing supernatural about the coin. Failing to eject after its initial strike, the nickel received a second, dramatically misaligned impression, producing one of the more unusual error coins I have encountered. Yet the result is strangely effective. Sometimes a mint error doesn’t simply alter a coin—it accidentally creates an entirely new image.

Collectors spend countless hours searching for doubled dies, clipped planchets, and off-center strikes. Every so often, however, an error comes along that captures something less tangible. It tells no great historical story and commemorates no important event. Instead, it simply makes you stop, stare, and perhaps glance over your shoulder while ice runs through your veins.

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