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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Collecting Nut, post: 8290546, member: 74863&quot;]In 1883 the Shield Nickel was taken out of production and the Liberty Head or “V” Nickel was produced in its place. This nickel was designed by Charles E. Barber and weighed 5 grams, and they were minted in Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco. It was 75% copper and 25% nickel.</p><p><br /></p><p>Early in 1883 and the first design of the Liberty Head Nickel had a Roman numeral “V” inside of a wreath on the reverse. Due to an individual named Josh Tatum, who was deaf and dumb, but smart enough, because of the design of the reverse he plated the nickels in gold. Being as he couldn’t talk and couldn’t hear, he passed them off as five dollar gold pieces as they looked very similar in design.</p><p><br /></p><p>Eventuality he was arrested but he served no jail time as he never made any claim that it was a five dollar gold piece. These have become known as the Racketeer Nickel. Shortly after this came to light, the Mint re-designed the reverse and added the word “CENTS” to the reverse just under the “V” and the wreath.</p><p><br /></p><p>We should also note that in 1920 at the ANA convention a former Mint employee showed an example of a 1913 Liberty Head Nickel. It soon became known that 5 specimens were in the hands of a Philadelphia coin dealer and in 1924 they were sold to another dealer and then they were sold to a colonel E.H.R. Green, the son of the famous Wall Street investor, Hetty Green. </p><p><br /></p><p>They are now in the hands of public and private collections. They are not considered a regular issue and were never placed in circulation. One of the 1913 coins was sold in a heritage auction in January 2014 at a price of $3,290,000. This piece is a PF-64.</p><p><br /></p><p>So here’s my 1883 NO CENTS Nickel graded by PCGS over 30 years ago. It was graded MS-62 but I believe it to be a MS-64 today. It has that old green label. Barely a mark on the coin except for the die cracks on both the obverse and reverse. Hopefully you can find them. Just enlarge the photos and they stand out. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1465407[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1465408[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1465409[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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