Featured 1913 Liberty Nickel Lore

each one seems to have a very different color to it.

Personally I feel the coin is over-rated. For 3.8 million I could have a safe deposit box full of awesome coins.

 

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Might as well since the USPS won't pay the insurance anyways....

 

yes but it will not be a 1913 v nickel tho! lol

 

I ndon't like bogus rarities like a 1913 V-nickel. For 3.8 million I could something like the entire SLQ , Morgan dollar, buffalo nickel and Danco 7070 in Ms-65.

 

I actually agree with you. If I had that kind of money, I would never sink 3.8 mill into 1 coin. But I still think the story is very interesting!

 

1913 picture from ANA show a back in 2010

I wish I had gotten a better picture but it was with my I-Phone at a distance.

 

Nice info! Thanks for sharing!

 

from an investment standpoint I think it has peaked as well. I recall this coin selling for like 200k when I was a wee lad in the early 70's ( say 1974). A nice return over time, but simple junk silver or gold would have done as well or even better.

If you have the entire V- nickel set sans the 1913 and blow 4 million on the 13, you are a collector. if you only have the 13, you are not a collector. I'd invest the 4M elsewhere personally.

For that 4M, I could spend the rest of my life and 4M trying to assemble the entire Buffalo ( not Indian head) set in gem grades , it might be 4 large large to do it in MS-65 +

That entire set over a single coin that Louie at the mint made before there were cameras everywhere.....no brainer to me.

 

There's a nice write up in this month's (Sept 2011) issue of The Numismatist (available to ANA members) if anybody wants to read more and see some more pics. I just read through the electronic version online today. They have another article on the 1913 copper buffalo nickel that was with them. Really cool looking. They have pictures of it and the case they were in.

 

Thanks for the tip Vess.

Here is an image of the original copper Buffalo Nickel that was a part of the set of 1913 Liberty Nickels.




Here is the original case! The correction that Conder posted was right. The case had 8 holes.




By the way, I recently stumbled on the 70 year price chart of the 1913 Liberty Nickel. Talk about a great investment coin since the early 1960's. Wow. Now that's what they call "going parabolic".

 

Great read! Better start checking my pocket change for that 6th one!

 

T'd seen the holder before. That's how I knew.

 

So the 8 hole case had

- Five 1913 Liberty Nickels
- One copper/bronze 1913 Buffalo

What was in the other 2 holes?

If the original owner had a copper and regular issue Buffalo similar to that shown in the case below (as it exists today) ... that still leaves 1 empty hole (the mystery 6th 1913 Liberty Nickel?)

 

Here is a larger photo of the original case ...
Maybe someone can confirm or refute that.

 

Great article and responses...thanks!!

 

I've told this story before, but while working for a New Orleans based dealer, I helped in placing the Olsen specimen (aka the King Farouk, Hawaii Five-O specimen). This deal was ongoing when I started working there, but I had the job of delivering it to the client. We as coin collectors know all about this coin, but you would be surprised to know how famous this coin is outside of the collector market. One passenger on the plane that I was on overheard me explaining what the coin was to one of the security guys (I guess I looked suspicious with no bags getting on a plane and traveling across the country). The passenger that overheard me was sitting next to me on the plane and asked about the coin. Before you knew it, the coin was being passed around the cabin and I was telling the story of the coin like I was giving a lecture at an ANA show. It remains by biggest coin nerd moment and represents the second most valuable thing that I have ever had in my pants .

 

The 1913 V nickel in general or the Olsen specimen in particular? The 1913 in general is very well known because of all of B Max Mehl advertising in the 30's and 40's. Even those that weren't around at the time heard the story from their parents or Grandparents. You have to get into the fourth generation after the ads ended before the story starts to fade from common knowledge.

If you mean the Olsen specimen, that was probably because of the great popularity of the Hawaii-5-0 program when it was on the air and for several years afterward in syndication. "The $100,000 Nickel" episode was one of the most popular in the series and once again that left its mark on people. Most people over 40 have probably heard of it.

 

I was talking about the 1913 in general, I would be shocked to learn that the general public knows much about pedigrees aside from the Olsen example.

 

Yes I was sitting in Blanchards office when the 5th one was found and my broker there told me that it was found and went through the way it was found,about the wreck,the death and all the coins the couple had with them and how a passerby that stop to help pick up some of the coins one of which was the 1913 Nickel and that he went home put the coins in his closet and never took it out until he saw an ad that a company,that I don't recall,put out ads that they would pay $10,000.00 to anyone that brought a 1913 Nickel by and
showed it to them,he did and you know the rest of the story. I know that my broker at Blanchards made an offer of $3,000,000.00 to someone on the phone,if they bought it I don't know. They are doing the same thing with the Morgan Dollar now. I am thinking it is a 1964 date. I may be wrong about the date but I will check to make sure.