5 oz SilverTowne Buffalo Silver Round

The 5 oz SilverTowne Buffalo Round

The 5 oz SilverTowne Buffalo is a larger-format version of one of America's most recognisable generic silver round designs. SilverTowne, founded in 1949 by WWII veteran Leon Hendrickson in Winchester, Indiana, has been minting its own products since 1973 when the company installed its first Bliss Press and Nickel Presses. The Buffalo round is their flagship product, reproducing James Earle Fraser's iconic 1913 Buffalo Nickel design in .999 fine silver.

At five troy ounces, this round sits in a middle ground between the standard 1 oz SilverTowne Buffalo and larger bar formats. The 5 oz weight offers a lower per-ounce premium than the 1 oz version while remaining accessible in terms of total outlay, typically representing a commitment equivalent to about five times the spot price of a single ounce. For stackers who appreciate the Buffalo Nickel design but want fewer, heavier pieces in their collection, the 5 oz format delivers that balance between unit cost and stacking efficiency.

Fraser's design is the most widely reproduced motif in private minting because it entered the public domain after the original coin's production ended. The obverse depicts a composite portrait of three Native American sitters: Iron Tail (Oglala Lakota), Two Moons (Northern Cheyenne), and John Big Tree (Seneca, though this attribution remains historically debated). The reverse shows an American bison standing atop a mound, modelled after Black Diamond, a bison at the Central Park Zoo in New York City. SilverTowne's version adds the mint name and weight/purity markings around the rim while preserving the classic composition that has appeared on American coinage since 1913.

Hendrickson's origin story is genuinely remarkable: a WWII veteran who ran a restaurant where he kept unusual coins in a cigar box, began selling collectible coins to customers, and eventually built one of the largest precious metals businesses in the country. The company remains family-run from Winchester (population approximately 4,500), an unlikely location for a major bullion operation. SilverTowne also operates a retail showroom, a numismatic museum, and the "Coin Vault" television programme that gave the company national reach before the internet era.

SilverTowne 5 oz Buffalo Specifications

SilverTowne Buffalo Variants

The Buffalo design is produced in multiple formats. The primary 1 oz version (39 mm diameter, 2.9 mm thick) comes in three sub-variants: dated (year stamped on the round, providing slight collectible interest for specific production years), undated (no year marking, treated as interchangeable generic bullion), and stackable rim (a thicker, flat-edged rim designed to stack neatly without sliding, same weight and purity). The 5 oz version extends the design to a larger format for collectors and those wanting fewer, heavier pieces. Packaging options for the 1 oz include individual protective flips, tubes of 20, and monster boxes of 500 rounds (25 tubes).

Authentication relies on the SilverTowne mint mark stamped on each round, weight verification (155.5 g for the 5 oz), and dimensional checks. No advanced anti-counterfeiting features such as micro-engraving or holograms are present. Sigma Metalytics or XRF testing can verify silver composition for buyers requiring additional assurance.

Tax Treatment for the SilverTowne Buffalo

The SilverTowne Buffalo is a private mint round with no legal tender status, no face value, and no government backing. Tax treatment follows standard silver bullion rules in each jurisdiction, with no special advantages or penalties specific to this product.

• United States: IRA-eligible. The .999 fineness meets the IRS Section 408(m) requirement for silver in retirement accounts, and SilverTowne is a recognised manufacturer accepted by most IRA custodians. This is a meaningful advantage over generic or lesser-known private mint rounds that custodians may reject. Sales tax varies by state; approximately 35 states exempt bullion from sales tax, and SilverTowne products qualify for these exemptions. Capital gains taxed at the 28% collectibles rate for holdings over one year.
• United Kingdom: Subject to 20% VAT on purchase. Not CGT-exempt (no legal tender status). Available from some UK dealers (notably Atkinsons Bullion) but the full VAT burden makes it uncompetitive against CGT-exempt silver Britannias or margin scheme alternatives for UK-resident buyers seeking tax efficiency.
• Canada: GST/HST exempt at .999 purity, meeting the 99.9% threshold for precious metals exemption under federal rules.
• Australia: GST-free at .999 purity from a recognised source, meeting the investment-grade threshold for silver.
• New Zealand: GST-exempt at .999 purity (99.9% threshold for silver met).
• Singapore: GST-exempt under the Investment Precious Metals scheme.
• Hong Kong: No sales tax or import duty of any kind.
• South Africa: 15% VAT applies to silver bullion regardless of purity. Only gold Krugerrands are zero-rated in South Africa.

SilverTowne Buffalo vs Other 5 oz Silver Rounds

The 5 oz silver round market is relatively small. Most private mints focus production on the dominant 1 oz format, with 5 oz as a secondary offering for collectors wanting fewer, heavier pieces. The SilverTowne Buffalo competes primarily on brand recognition and low premiums rather than design distinction or security features.

Against the 5 oz Walking Liberty from Golden State Mint, the SilverTowne Buffalo offers a comparable product at similar pricing. Both are .999 fine, generic-style rounds from established private mints with decades of operating history. The choice between them is largely aesthetic: Fraser's Native American portrait versus Weinman's striding Liberty figure. Neither carries embedded security features beyond their respective mint marks, and both trade at near-identical premiums through the US dealer network.

The 5 oz Scottsdale Tombstone Nugget occupies a different segment entirely. Its hand-poured, irregular shape and frontier-themed design appeal to collectors willing to pay a higher premium for artisanal production and the uniqueness of each individual piece. The SilverTowne Buffalo is a conventional struck round, fungible and stackable, targeting buyers who prioritise silver content per dollar over aesthetic distinction or hand-crafted character.

For buyers considering the 5 oz Texas Silver round, the key differentiator is purity: Texas Mint strikes at .9999 fine (four nines) versus SilverTowne's .999 standard. The Texas round also features an annually changing reverse design, adding a modest collectible dimension that the static Buffalo design lacks. The premium difference between .999 and .9999 rounds is typically negligible in practice, so the choice comes down to whether the annual design rotation and marginally higher purity justify any premium difference at the point of purchase.