1913 Liberty Nickel - 5 Known; PCGS Price Guide Offers 7 Prices

Artist

I was just looking at the PCGS price guide - and they quote values for the 1913 Liberty Nickel in grades PF60 to PF66 - it is odd to see seven numbers listed for an issue with a known population of five. Could PCGS hedging their bets against grade-flation or deflation?

firstmint

Not all of them have a proof surface either.

rhedden

That is a pretty funny observation. Are there 7 of them graded in the population report too?

MFH

Seven coins due to resubmissions ?? LOL

...imagine cracking a 1913 V Nickel out and scratching it !!!

dizzyfoxx

Perhaps there are actually seven out there. The remaining two must be buried pretty deep in their original collections.

Halfsense

Not all of the five are encapsulated with a formal, assigned grade, such as the one in The Smithsonian's collection and the Walton specimen which PCGS authenticated at the 2003 ANA convention in Baltimore when Walton's heirs brought it to the show (after it had been kept in a Virginia closet for 41 years!).

Click here for photo of Walton specimen shot just after it was authenticated by PCGS during a Midnight meeting in 2003 at the Baltimore ANA.

-donn-

CaptHenway

<< <i>I was just looking at the PCGS price guide - and they quote values for the 1913 Liberty Nickel in grades PF60 to PF66 - it is odd to see seven numbers listed for an issue with a known population of five. Could PCGS hedging their bets against grade-flation or deflation?




>>



Only if they use the same sliding scale as 1804 dollars.......

Coinosaurus

Price guides for such coins are meaningless. Just put down the last auction price (and date!) and be done with it.

19Lyds

Think about it!

6 points = $2,000,000

Coxe

Any idea what the cancelled obverse die for the 1913 Liberty nickel would be worth if the owner chose to sell it?

firstmint

It is extremely doubtful that the obverse die is still extant.

Samuel Brown, who worked at the Philadelphia Mint (begining in 1903), and was a member of the American Numismatic Association in the first decade of the 20th century (attending the 1908 ANA convention in Philadelphia), would have been intelligent enough to destroy all eveidence of such a thing before he offered to buy any of them in 1919.

Brown was a friend of Stephen Nagy (and accordingly Nagy's father-in-law John Haseltine) and was active in numismatics at the time of the William Woodin 1877 Half Union $50 gold pieces tradeback for crates of patterns. Brown had also been the assistant curator of the Mint Collection.

In the tradtion of William DuBois, who had been the Mint Cabinet curator until his death in 1881, Brown knew that there was "extra" income to be made by selling scarce items to greedy and wealthy (or is it wealthy & greedy?) coin collectors.

Documents exist to validate that the 1913 dated obverse die was on-hand in the Philly Mint until at least February 1913. In November that year, Brown resigned from the Mint and moved to upstate New York.

In December 1919, Brown was the first to advertise to buy any 1913 Liberty Head nickels (not Max Mehl) and he displayed one the following year at the annual ANA convention.

More about this tale can be found in the back of the January 2, 2007 Orlando sale by Stack's (description by Q. David Bowers), where the finest example (ex-TDN) was offered, but failed to meet the reserve. It was sold privately shortly afterwards.

cmerlo1

I had a 1930's Whitman Liberty Nickels coin board that said there were 6 known...as far as I've heard, it's always been 5...

firstmint

There were 5 1913 LH nickels in the 8 coin case which Eric Newman purchased from the Col. Green estate.

The others were bronze patterns of such items as the 1912 Buffalo nickel, 1913 (rounded 3 in date) Buffalo w/o designer initial, etc.

Broadstruck

<< <i>There were 5 1913 LH nickels in the 8 coin case which Eric Newman purchased from the Col. Green estate.

The others were copper patterns of such items as the 1912 Buffalo nickel, etc. >>



E.H.R. may have used the others as a tip for some loose women at a brothel?

dizzyfoxx

<< <i>

<< <i>There were 5 1913 LH nickels in the 8 coin case which Eric Newman purchased from the Col. Green estate.

The others were copper patterns of such items as the 1912 Buffalo nickel, etc. >>



E.H.R. may have used the others as a tip for some loose women at a brothel? >>



Money well spent!