1913 Liberty Nickel

@KBBPLL, can I just thank you for the way you're knocking it out of the park with your posts in this thread? I thought I had a reasonable background on 1913 Liberty nickel lore, but you're adding all this additional background and verification, including very recent info.

I can't pick just one post to nominate as a Best Answer, but at this point I feel like Featured Thread status would be in order...

 

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I agree. I am trying to think back why the 6 coin slots were stuck in my mind clearly. Maybe the picture you have of the 8 coin slot holder with 2 buffalos in it was the cause? Maybe the holder was known with 2 buffalos in it, leading some to erroneously believe there would have been 6 1913 LH nickels? IDK, but it sounds like others remember the same stories from trade publications 25 years ago.

 

That's a good observation. Newman sold his Liberty nickel in 1949 and the 09/2011 Numismatist article indicates the Buffalo pattern (presumed Judd-1950) was sold prior to that. So the case had 6 empty holes for decades, and it probably got confused into the case having 6 holes. I ran across something a few days ago that corresponds to your recollection of a trade publication story, but it was so full of bunk that I didn't save the source. It also lines up with people saying there were "five or six" back in 1935 and perhaps even earlier. I don't know where that originated but it kept getting repeated.

 

I seem to remember CoinAge with a picture of a 1913 on it if it helps. That was a monthly coin magazine back when CoinWorld was a weekly. Not positive it was that article, or if I heard it elsewhere.

 

Here's where I saw it, repeating something from a 1953 Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine. No doubt the same story was repeated and published many times.

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/1913-liberty-nickel-768780
"According to the December 1953 issue of The Numismatic Scrapbook Magazine, an early owner of the entire set of 1913 Liberty Head specimens had a special plush leather-bound case made for them -- with six coin holes in it! At the time the coins were shown (after this owner's death, and while still in the special case,) one of the coin slots had been filled by a bronze cast of the 1913 Buffalo Nickel."

 

@KBBPLL I have to totally agree with @-jeffB you are slam dunking this thread. I've learned more about the 1913 V Nickel from your posts than I have in the last 50 years, cumulative! Thank you very much.

 

I believe a CT member bought this case.