TWO GUNS WHITE CALF. Photograph postcard Signed with his pictogram, bust portrait by...

TWO GUNS WHITE CALF. Photograph postcard Signed with his pictogram, bust portrait by Hileman, showing him in profile. Signed in the image, lower right. Correspondence side blank. 5 1/4x3 1/4 inches; few scattered dings. [Glacier National Park, MT, 1929]

Estimate $600 - 900

The "Buffalo Nickel," which featured the profiles of a Native American head on one side and a buffalo on the other, was in circulation between 1913 and 1938. Upon the coin's release, publicists for the new hotel at Glacier National Park in Montana saw a striking similarity between the head of Two Guns White Calf and the head rendered on the nickel. The publicists claimed that Two Guns White Calf had been a model for the coin and employed him as a Park attraction, but there arose some controversy about whose portrait appeared on the nickel. Since the coin's designer, James Earle Fraser, could not recall the models used for the design, the publicists could not be contradicted in their claim.

Price Realized (with Buyer's Premium) $1,105