The Story

In David Mamet's American Buffalo, a coin collector stumbles across a valuable buffalo nickel in a small Chicago junk shop and purchases it for only $90. Later coming to believe that the coin was worth far more than this and feeling he has been unfairly taken advantage of, Don, the shop owner, becomes determined to steal the coin back. He elicits help from Bobby, a troubled young protégé, and Teach, a paranoid and violent braggart. 

The three conspirators fancy themselves as businessmen pursuing the legitimate concerns of free enterprise. In reality, however, they are merely small time crooks, and all of their plotting amounts to nothing in the end. It is a futile, vulgar, verbal exercise that finally erupts in violence when their failure becomes apparent and the frustration becomes unbearable.