Liberty Head nickel

Liberty Head nickel

The Liberty Head nickel is an American five-cent piece. It was struck for circulation from 1883 until 1912, with at least five pieces being surreptitiously struck dated 1913. The obverse features a left-facing image of the goddess of Liberty. The coin is now one of the world’s most valuable pieces of coin, selling for $4.5 million in 2018.

About Liberty Head nickel in brief

Summary Liberty Head nickelThe Liberty Head nickel, sometimes referred to as the V nickel because of its reverse design, is an American five-cent piece. It was struck for circulation from 1883 until 1912, with at least five pieces being surreptitiously struck dated 1913. The obverse features a left-facing image of the goddess of Liberty. For almost thirty years large quantities of coin of this design were produced to meet commercial demand, especially as coin-operated machines became increasingly popular. Beginning in 1911, the Mint began work to replace the Liberty head design, and a new design, which became known as the Buffalo nickel, went into production in February 1913. While it is uncertain how these pieces originated, they have come to be among the most expensive coins in the world, with one selling in 2018 for USD 4. 5 million. One variant struck as a pattern, but was not adopted, was a coin with five evenly spaced notches in the rim of the coin. This coin was struck at the request of Congressman and former Union General William S. Rosecrans, who stated that many of his colleagues had been blinded by wartime combat or disease. The design was rejected by Treasury Secretary Charles Folger, who realized that the laws required the obverse to appear on the reverse.

President Chester Arthur Folger then consulted with Treasury Secretary J. J. Folger on the coinage statutes, and the design was approved by the Mint. The coin is now one of the world’s most valuable pieces of coin, selling for $4.5 million in 2018. It is one of only a handful of coins to have been struck in copper-nickel, the other being the $1,000,000 “Star of the West’s’’ “” “The Star of the World”” and the $2,500,000 “‘”, ‘’, ’“, ”’ and the “$3,000” coin. It has a diameter of 22 millimetres (8.5 inches) and a weight of 5 grams (1.5 grams) The coin was made of copper–nickel and was struck by the U.S. Mint in Washington, D.C. in 1883. It features a wreath of wheat, cotton, and corn around a Roman numeral designating the denomination of the nickel; thus the five- cent piece was to have the Roman numal “V””. The design is not to be confused with the ‘V nickel’ of the same name, which was also struck in the early 1880s by the United States Mint. A modified pattern design later that year added the words ‘E Pluribus Unum’ to the reverse, adding the words ‘In God We Trust’  to thereverse. The nickel was struck in 1882, and 25 specimens were sent to Washington for routine approval by the Treasury Secretary.