New info on 1913 Liberty Head nickel
vans1
Posts: 9 ✭
Here’s a link to some new info on the 1913 Liberty Head nickel, which ran in the Aug. 1 issue of Numismatic News.
It involves the first showing of one of the coins, which I’ve found occurred at the Dec. 3, 1919 meeting of the Chicago Coin Club.
It was announced, at the ANA convention in Philadelphia, only shortly before the CCC meeting, that Chicago would host the 1920 convention. I’m guessing this was the impetus behind Samuel Brown traveling from New York in winter to Chicago.
The meeting, as noted in my article, was before any of his infamous ads offering to buy specimens of the 1913 Liberty Head nickel in proof, if possible, were received by subscribers to The Numismatist.
Bob V.R.
1
Comments
I really enjoyed the article. Made me go find the piece in the Feb '20 issue.
I always assumed he had the coins before he placed the ads. Now we do know he had at least one.
Great article, thanks for posting!
Excellent article.............thanks for the link. Was the Mint operating 24/7 back when the 5 Nickels were produced circa late 1912? Probably not. Strange. Where was security? According to the late Frank Gasparro, few employees had access to the coin locker. There had to be a real conspiracy of numerous parties to pull off the "clandestine" striking of those five specimens. Either that or it was done in plain sight along with whatever was going on elsewhere. High Mint Officials would have had access to the die, and we all know that Supervisory Personnel can mostly come and go as they please. Maybe they took over a press under the guise of some special project, or an excuse of maintenance.
This would not, of course explain the set up and preparation of the die in advance of coining.
Are we any closer to the truth?
I don't think so.
Pete
It is mysteries such as this that add to the lure of coin collecting...Likely most will never be solved, but for the 'detective' in all of us, it sure is fun. Cheers, RickO