Liberty Nickel

1883 – 1912

The Liberty Nickel, also called the V Nickel or Barber Nickel, was first struck in 1883. In the beginning of the year the coin was minted without the word “cents” below the “V” on the reverse. The Coinage Act of 1792 did not require coins higher than one cent in value to include the denomination, so this is not
surprising.
Many unscrupulous people started gold plating the coin and passing it off as a five dollar gold piece. The problem was with the “V” combined with no denomination which made it easy for a gold plated nickel to be mistaken for a five dollar gold piece. These gold plated examples are still common today and are referred to as “racketeer nickels”.

Approximately 5.5 million 1883 Liberty Nickels were struck without the word “CENTS”; this is referred to as the “Type 1 Liberty Nickel”. In the middle of the year the design was modified to include the word “CENTS” below the “V”; this is the “Type 2 Liberty Nickel”. 16 million Type 2 nickels were produced during the remainder of the year. Surprisingly, the Type 1 is actually more common in high grades than the Type 2, because many of the Type 1 examples were put back and collected.
Because of the designs inherent low relief, well struck examples of the Liberty Nickel are relatively common in high grades.
The obverse features Lady Liberty wearing a crown with the word “LIBERTY” on the band. Liberty is surrounded by 13 stars representing, of course, the 13 original colonies.
The reverse features a Roman numeral “V” in the center surrounded by a wreath. Directly above the “V” is the Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum, All For One. Around the edge are the words “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”. Type 2 coins have the word “CENTS” centered at the bottom with a dot on either side of the word.
The Liberty Nickel went through the entire series with no design changes. Up until 1912 all coins were produced by the Philadelphia Mint when, in the final year of production, San Francisco and Denver also struck the nickel.
As an interesting note there is a mystery concerning a 1913 dated Liberty Nickel. Officially there were no Liberty nickels minted in that year, but to date there are five known examples. In 1996 a 1913 Liberty Nickel was sold for nearly 1.5 million dollars which was an all time record for any coin. The existence of the 1913 dated nickel wasn’t discovered until 1920 at the ANA convention.
[amazonshowcase_2b3c7f208125eeac706a73177b420ac1]The dates with the lowest mintage are 1885, 1886 and 1912-S although none are considered extremely rare.
Liberty Nickel Specifications

• Diameter: 21.2 mm
• Weight: 5.0 g
• Composition: 75% Copper 25% Nickel
• Edge: Plain
• Designer: Charles E. Barber

Liberty Nickel Mintage Numbers

1883 No CENTS … 5,474,300 1883 with CENTS … 16,026,200 1884 … 11,270,000 1885 … 1,473,300 1886 … 3,326,000 1887 … 15,260,692 1888 … 10,715,901 1889 … 15,878,025 1890 … 16,256,532 1891 … 16,832,000 1892 … 11,696,897 1893 … 13,368,000

1894 … 5,410,500 1895 … 9,977,822 1896 … 8,841,048 1897 … 20,426,797 1898 … 12,530,292 1899 … 26,027,000 1900 … 27,253,733 1901 … 26,478,228 1902 … 31,487,581 1903 … 28,004,930 1904 … 21,403,167

1905 … 29,825,124 1906 … 38,612,000 1907 … 39,213,325 1908 … 22,684,557 1909 … 11,585,763 1910 … 30,166,948 1911 … 39,557,639 1912 … 26,234,569 1912-D . 8,474,000 1912-S …. 238,000 1913 …… 5 known

Written by D Slone, Copyright 2010 CoinCollectorGuide.com