The America Buffalo Gold Coin is a gold bullion coin made by the United States Mint, which started being available to the public on June 22, 2006. The most prominent difference between United States U.S. Eagle coins and American Buffaloes is that the American Buffalo is twenty-four karat bullion gold coin, in other words 99.99% pure gold. The main American Eagle coins are 22 karat gold, in other words .9167% pure gold, while the rest is a silver-copper alloy. Buffalo gold coins began as a result of augmenting world requirement for twenty-four K gold coins, and the acclaim for Canadian Maple Leaves, Chinese Gold Pandas, and various 99.99 pure gold bullion products.

The one oz. gold buffalo coin has an official price of $50. But as with other coins, this token value simply denotes that the coin is legal tender and has no practical relationship to the coin's true price, which depends on this gold spot price . The look of Gold Buffalos relies on that of the Buffalo Nickel, which was available from 1913 to 1938. The imagery, by James Earle Frase, shows a picture of an American Indian man on the obverse, and a picture of a Yank bison ( buffalo ) on the back. The obverse side also includes the year of issue at the lower left, and the word "Liberty" along the top righthand side. The back side shows the name "United States of America" along the top edge, under that to the right side are the words "E PLURIBUS UNUM" which is Latin for "Out of many, one" ( a motto employed in many official Yankee symbols ). It also says "In God We Trust" near the lower left, and at the bottom the face value, and under the face worth the coin's weight and pureness of ".9999 Fine Gold".

The American buffalo gold coin is also available in fractional sizes of 0.5 oz. with an official price of $25, 0.25 oz with a face value of $10, and 1 / ten oz. with a face value of $5.

Buffalo gold coins have also been released in uncirculated and proof versions of better production quality ( and high premium pricing ), but such coins have been canned for the year 2009 due to striking need for gold bullion coins. In addition, 2009 minting of the regular bullion buffalo coins have been postponed until further notice. Most of the augmenting investment demand is for U.S. gold eagles, so that the United States Mint is reserving the majority of its gold stockpiles for their production.

American buffalos minted in previous years can be found in coin stores and bullion stores. But you will have to shop around to find some because there's no supply of newly minted coins this year.