1913 V-Nickel

foodude

David,

Please share your thoughts on the recent resurfacing of the fifth 1913 V-Nickel, including what you were thinking when you heard it surfaced, and had an opportunity to examine it.

Thanks,
Greg

homerunhall

After we did the advertising and PR for the "missing" million dollar nickel we were bombarded with phone calls and emails...everyone saying they believed they had a 1913 Liberty nickel. We didn't take any of the calls seriously. But when they Walton family said they had a nickel and wanted it authenticated, we took them seriously as they were the relatives of the last known owner. We made arrangements to view the nickel at the ANA.

We authenticated the nickel on Tuesday night between 11:00 and 12:00PM. The authenticators were B&M President Paul Montgomery...B&M Vice President and research expert, Mark Borckardt...PCGS founder and coin expert extraordinaire John Dannreuther...the top error coin expert in the world, Fred Weinberg...PCGS Advisory Board member, long time friend and dealer, and expert, Jeff Garrett...and little old me.

We were extremely fortunate in that we had all five nickels available for comparision purposes. The two PCGS graded 1913 Liberty nickels (Legend and Manley), the Smithsonian specimen, and the ANA specimen were all in the room with the Walton specimen. We all looked at each of the five coins and we all took our time. Fred Weinberg is really an expert on the striking process and he carefully examined the edges of the coins, convincing himself they all came from the same die. John Dannreuther is so off-the-charts good at this that he was able to re-construct the order in which the coins were struck (Walton coin fourth) from minute details of the coins. I was concerned about the dates and I found the positioning, size, and even the minute flaws in the "3" to be identical on all five coins.

We discussed the coins and our mutual comfort level in the authenticity of the Walton coin. I did want to be very careful before PCGS went out on the limb about the Walton coin. Since everyone was certain the coin was indeed genuine, around midnight, I told the ANA representatives, Smithsonian representative, Associated Press people, and numismatic press representatives that...

"PCGS is 100% convinced that the Walton specimen is indeed a genuine 1913 Liberty nickel."

This is one of the biggest and most important events for the coin market in decades. The Walton family agreed to display their nickel with the five others. It was the first time the coins had been together since 1942. it was the first time the five coins had been displayed in public together since the 1920 Chicago ANA. This was a wonderful event for the ANA and for all coin collectors and dealers. Jeff Garrett called authenticating the 1913 Liberty nickel the highlight of his numismatic career. It was a marvelous moment and I'm very lucky I was part of it!