Roll of weird nickels

So, my great-grandfather passed a roll of weird nickels down to my dad, which he then gave to me. I am concerned about the value of these nickels. They have a V on the back, a woman's head that has "LIBERTY" on it on the front, and they are all dated 1913. Any idea what these are worth?

 

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Ahhh, yea.... I'm not sure what counterfeit 1913 liberty nickels are going for these days or I'd tell you. How about some images?

 

Also, the roll seems to say "Property of US Mint" on it.

 

Ah...to be 12 years old again...

 

I took the 1913s to the local dealer and he compared all of them with pictures of what he knew were real 1913 liberty head nickels. He also said they were worth millions of dollars apiece. If so, I am quite shocked.

 

Really? Please post the name and phone number of this dealer. I'd love to talk to him.

Since only 5 of these are known to exist, I'd say you could pretty much skip school, college, and a job and retire now.

"From whence do these people come? I know not, my liege... 'tis madness."

 

You do know we have every right to report you... pictures or stop posting silly stuff!

 

Get to bed. School in the morning!

 

OK, this was a joke - I don't have any Liberty Head Nickels dated 1913. I know much more, and this was meant to be a harmless joke. I'm sincerely sorry if I caused any trouble. Now can we lock the thread?

 

Not funny at all.

 

OK, sorry. I didn't want any of you to believe this "numismatic find".

 

Before this thread gets too crazy, he really is 12 years old. Unless his profile page is also a joke.

 

Nothing wrong with joking around, it just needed some work to be plausible.

 

go find a childrens forum to play in and dont waste my time...

 

I rather think that your grandfather or your dad would not be proud of this either. But we all made mistakes when we were younger. I want to see a serious post or article about v-five cent coins here within a week. Don't fail me. Call it homework.

 

We all make mistakes at some point in our lives. As usual, we end up paying for those mistakes.

The Liberty Head Nickel was struck officially from 1883 to 1912. The date is below the Liberty Head and the mintmark (on 1912 issues only) is on the reverse, under the left dot on •CENTS•. It was designed by Charles E. Barber.

Originally, the 1883 issues were made without the word CENTS on them. This caused controversy as these nickels were gold-plated and passed off as five-dollar gold pieces, or half eagles. Later, the US mint addressed this issue, and 1883 nickels were made with CENTS on them. The 1883 coins with no CENTS were soon believed to become "rare" and they were hoarded by the public. As a result, 1883 no cents nickels are the cheapest and most plentiful in mint state than any other Liberty Head Nickel.

After mintages were large for LHNs in 1883 and 1884, they significantly dropped in 1885-86. As a result, the 1885 and 1886 issues are two out of the three major key dates of the series. The cause for these mintage figures was an economic downturn. By 1887, many orders came to the mint to make more nickels.

In 1912, the two branch mints Denver and San Francisco started producing nickels. San Francisco did not produce 1912 nickels until Christmas of that year, so the coins were only made for four days until their replacement with Buffalo Nickels. With only 238000 1912-S nickels minted they are the rarest official nickels in the series and the third major key date.

The US mint was transitioning from Liberty Head to Buffalo Nickels in 1913. However, the dies for 1913 Liberty Head Nickels have already been made. Instead of throwing away those perfectly good dies, the employees of the Philadelphia Mint decided to strike five of them in Proof and then sell them to collectors.

Originally, a man named Samuel Brown got hold of all five of these coins in 1920, and then sold them in 1924 to Colonel E.H.R Green (son of Hetty Green) after passing through multiple hands. When he died in 1936, all five 1913's were auctioned off to Eric P. Newman and B. G. Johnson, who then broke them up.

Now, three of the specimens are in private hands and two are in museums. They are called the Eliasberg, Olsen, Norweb, Walton, and McDermott specimens. The Norweb is in the Smithsonian and the McDermott is in the ANA's Money Museum.

The most interesting one by far is the Walton specimen. George O. Walton, the previous owner of the coin, died in a car crash in 1962 on his way to a coin show. The 1913 nickel was found in a special box. Later, this coin was taken to a local dealer and the dealer said it was fake. (altered date) So, it was thrown in a closet and forgotten.

41 years later, the coin was found again, and they took it to a coin show where the four known 1913 nickels were on display, and coin dealers noticed a small die mark under the dates on all of the nickels, and they could not believe it. It was the lost fifth specimen! In 2003, it was sold for over three million dollars.

 

Somewhat blah, you forgot the exciting part about the "lost and found" one.

"1913 Liberty Head nickel is one of only five known to exist, but it's the coin's back story that adds to its cachet: It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner, declared a fake, forgotten in a closet for decades and then found to be the real deal."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/29/siblings-likely-to-make-millions-in-auction-rare-113-nickel/