This collection of 1920 issues of the ANA’s The Numismatist arrived today. They are an integral part of the story about how Samuel Brown tried to hide the nefarious and illicit origins of the 1913 nickels and turn them into one of the “greatest” rarities in US numismatics. The story goes that in 1913 (or even 1912) Samuel Brown worked at the mint and used mint property to mint (likely, had someone mint for him) 5 1913 Liberty nickels for himself. Then he held them in secret for 7 years so that the the statute of limitations would expire before he let their existence be known. At the end of this 7 years, he began advertising in The Numismatist offering to buy any 1913 Liberty nickels in “proof condition, if possible” for the egregiously princely sum of $600 (for reference, the Rittenhouse 1792 half disme sold in 1920 for well less than $100). This gave the coins’ origins a plausible deniability. If they were legally made, then why go through all of these loops? Kinda funny since the 1933 double eagles are all (except one) illegal to own even though most/all probably left the mint legally (aka not stolen). The collection I bought: The advertisement in the February 1920 issue: The advertisement in the March 1920 issue: Some of the earliest contemporary commentary in the October 1920 issue. Note how Mr. Brown is saying that he bought all of his examples. Nice how he knew they were all going to be proofs. Totally not trying to hide something...
That's one of the main attractions in Numismatics for me . The History , Designs , Stories and Racountours trying to game the system . I imagine that's why my collection is so varied and not accumulating sets but designs and early denominations . I just love 3 cent silver and half dimes , $1 $2.50 & $3.00 Gold pieces , lg & half cents .
I owned one, but sold it for $25. It does make me wonder if someone made this in response to an ad like his... to try and rip him off.
I’ve read that most of the altered dates came as a result of Max Mehl’s extensive advertising campaign
