Curious Hoard of 1883 NO CENTS Liberty Nickels Offered at CSNS by Heritage Auctions
KollectorKing
Posts: 4,820 ✭✭✭✭✭
A historic hoard of nearly 300 1883 NO CENTS Liberty Nickels – hidden for more than a century in a simple canvas sack – may prove irresistible for collectors seeking one of the most fascinating and curious discoveries in modern numismatics. Heritage Auctions is offering the entire hoard of 297 coins (and the sack, too) as a single lot in the firm’s U.S. Coins Auction during the Central States Numismatic Society (CSNS) Convention April 25-30 in Chicago.
“The consignor wants to present the cache as it was originally discovered: Inside the original canvas sack which was found untouched since the late 1880s,” said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage Auctions. “Most of the coins grade Uncirculated to Choice Uncirculated.”
Hoard of NO CENTS Liberty NickelsThe hoard is the numismatic stuff of dreams. The coins were found stashed in an age-stained canvas sack for fishing weights made by the New York Lead Company. Cinched shut by a simple drawstring, the bag retained a hand-written note dated Oct. 21, 1889. The numismatic newspaper Coin World touted the discovery in 2009 when the sack full of coins was purchased at a small New England auction.
The 1883 NO CENTS nickel quickly became a popular collectible shortly after they were issued. Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber designed the undenominated coin to depict a left-facing bust of Lady Liberty surrounded by stars. The reverse features a bold Roman numeral V inside a laurel wreath surrounded by the words UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and E PLURIBUS UNUM. Later that same year, the Mint added the word CENTS to the reverse after it learned scoundrels were gold plating the coin to pass them off as five dollar gold pieces.
Barber’s original design appeared 30 years later on what would become five of the most sought-after coins in numismatic history. A Mint employee secretly produced five Liberty Head nickels marked 1913. The famously rare coins are now worth millions. Heritage Auctions sold one of the five 1913 Liberty Head nickels for more than $3.7 million.
“One could say the 1883 NO CENTS Liberty nickel is responsible for one of the most fascinating chapters in numismatics,” Rohan said. “Ironically, the hoard we’re offering in April adds one more page to the coin’s curious history.”
As the official auctioneer, Heritage Auctions will offer the hoard of nearly 300 1883 NO CENTS Liberty nickels in its U.S. Coins Auction April 25-30 during the Central States Numismatic Society annual convention. Online bidding opens April 6 on HA.com/1274 and a full preview of the auction’s lots is April 24-28 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel, 1551 North Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg, Illinois.
Comments
Selling all at once, in my mind, is a big mistake. Who the hell needs 300 1883 nickels? And how do owners of uncirculated 1883 NO CENTS Liberty Nickels feel about this discovery?
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
Woo Hoo! Somebody can buy them and list them 1 by 1 on ebay with some great hoard tale! I for 1 find it funny and it doesn't excite me at all!
It should not upset the current owners of Uncirculated 1883 No Cents Liberty nickels at all. The coin has long been known to be very common in AU to Unc. condition, and another 300 won't make much of a difference after a few months at most.
As for selling them all at once, that would be only way that you could get a major auction house to sell them in a live auction. According to the Gray Sheet, the coins are worth $14 to $55 in AU to MS-64. I doubt that there are many Gem Uncirculated examples lurking in that bag. I imagine that a fair number of them have "fly specks" as shown on the piece in the article.
The write-up on the lot contains a lot of truthful statements and history, but there is some hype too like, relating them to the 1913 Liberty Nickel which really does not have much of anything to do with this lot of coins.
It is a neat story. Wonder where the 298th nickel is
I will be watching it. Would love to own it.
300 1883 NC nickels won't hurt the market a bit.
It's a drop in the bucket.
300 WITH cents would be a different deal.
The hoard story adds appeal, and as obnoxious as the hyperbole in the write-up is, the coins will likely do well, especially with a "New York Lead Co. Hoard" or similar on the slabs.
I think the buyer of the lot will be able to milk it successfully.
I recall that a friend of mine back in my teenage years had a half roll hoard of 1883 No Cents nickels that had been in his family since they were first issued. This was back in the early 1960's.
Don't be surprised if the buyer turns out to be a TV based marketer.
I figure that mail order coin dealer in New Hampshire could but them, hype them up a bit, and then sell them for a 500% profit.
.> @291fifth said:
There ya go...
K
A hoard this size of any other date Liberty Nickel would be much more significant.
1883NC nickels only get a yawn, even in this quantity.
We don't know if it will be a deal for telemarketers or anyone. It all depends on the price. Let them beat each other up over it and it will be a "deal" for nobody.
I can do 1c over face on each.
That's the buyer's fee...
Pacific Northwest Numismatic Association
Now if the original owner had squirreled away ~300 high grade 1885 nickels.....
I bet the best three coins were cherry picked.
My 20th Century Gold Major Design Type Set ---started : 11/17/1997 ---- completed : 1/21/2004
Just add file and can of gold spray paint.
I have a Racketeer Nickel.... do not need any other 1883 nickels... That being said, as a coin collector, what fun it would have been to find that little hoard. Cheers, RickO
$10 bucks a pop...$3K plus juice...I will be watching for entertainment purposes.
BST transactions: dbldie55, jayPem, 78saen, UltraHighRelief, nibanny, liefgold, FallGuy, lkeigwin, mbogoman, Sandman70gt, keets, joeykoins, ianrussell (@GC), EagleEye, ThePennyLady, GRANDAM, Ilikecolor, Gluggo, okiedude, Voyageur, LJenkins11, fastfreddie, ms70, pursuitofliberty, ZoidMeister,Coin Finder, GotTheBug, edwardjulio, Coinnmore...
Does this help explain why the word "CENTS" was omitted from the first 1883 Liberty nickels? [Volunteer transcription.]
"Mint of the United States at Philadelphia, Pa.,
SUPERINTENDENT’S OFFICE
December 20, 1882
Hon. H. C. Burchard
Director of the Mint
Washington, D. C.
Sir,
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 18th inst. and note the objections made by the Honorable The Secretary of the Treasury to the proposed device and inscriptions on the 5 cent coin, and in reply beg today that the original draft of section 3517, did not require that devices, inscriptions, and legends should be placed specifically either on the Reverse or Obverse of the Coin.
To attempt to follow out the law as to reverse and obverse would destroy the beauty of the piece.
If I attempt to reduce the wreath, so as to put the words United States of America upon it, it will require the Roman Numeral to be so small as to be very objectionable, whilst the other side of the coin would be bare, unless stars were put in to fill up the spaces on the right and left of the head of Liberty, above which would be the inscription, “E Pluribus Unum.”
I therefore trust that in view of the impossibility of conforming literally with the terms of the section without destroying the beauty of the piece, that it be issued as indicated in the specimen sent to you. It fully complies with the law in regard to devices, legends, and inscriptions, and the only point of difference is a technical one, that they are not placed just in the order which the section indicates.
You will notice that under the sections before referred to, the Eagle is to be omitted in the dime, five-cent, three, and one-cent pieces. This leaves a freedom, I think, to place the devices, legends and inscriptions in such a way, as to be most artistic and convenient.
In preparing the dies for the standard silver dollar, I was consulted by the late Director of the Mint and indeed the completion of the dies was placed in my hands although I was then temporarily absent from the Mint Service. This very question as to placing the motto, inscriptions and devices arose, and after a full discussion, he concluded, with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Treasury, that it would impair the beauty of the coin to place the words E Pluribus Unum on the reverse already crowded, and therefore directed that it be placed in conformity with my suggestions on the obverse of the coin.
This action taken by your predecessor, who had much to do in preparing the Mint law of 1873, would seem to establish a precedent on this point which we could not err much in following at the present time.
Trusting to hear from you at an early time.
I remain very respectfully
Your obedient servant
A. Loudon Snowden,
Superintendent
I assume that graphic artists at PCGS and NGC are currently busy coming up with a special label in an attempt to get the winning bidder to submit the coins.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars
How will they get the bag to fit?
Very interesting tie-in to the 1913 Liberty Head nickels that were made 30 years later:
"Barber’s original design appeared 30 years later on what would become five of the most sought-after coins in numismatic history. A Mint employee secretly produced five Liberty Head nickels marked 1913. The famously rare coins are now worth millions. Heritage Auctions sold one of the five 1913 Liberty Head nickels for more than $3.7 million."
Of those five, it is the "Hawaii Five-O Coin" which apparently was the one being referenced to as selling for $3.7 million as per my prior posting on a thread regarding the real life coin show theft of coins owned by Larry Briggs:
"In the 1973 episode of Hawaii Five-0 titled, "The $100,000 Dollar Nickel" (which was based on the theft of the Olsen Specimen of the 1913 Liberty Head Nickel that had just set the record for the price paid for a single coin the year prior in 1972), there was an interesting parallel to the real life theft subject of this thread. In both cases the coin(s) were stolen at a coin show by a thief who used a distraction. In the fictional TV episode the con artist's attractive wife provides the distraction as character Arnie Price examines a dealer's coins at the coin show being held in Waikiki's Ilikai Hotel.
For any not familiar with the celebrity history of this coin, as above noted it was the first coin to sell for $100,000. In 2010 it was sold to an undisclosed party for the sum of $3,737,500.
More recently Heritage Auctions posted this with regard to 2014's FUN:
"A legendary rare nickel that was made under mysterious circumstances and was unknown to even exist for many years is coming back in the spotlight.
The Olsen specimen 1913 Liberty Head nickel, sometimes known as the "Hawaii Five-O" specimen because of its featured appearance in an episode of that popular television program, will be offered in the Heritage Auctions U.S. Signature Coin Auction at the Florida United Numismatists Convention in Orlando, Jan. 8-12, 2014.
It is graded NGC PR64, and Heritage officials estimate it will sell for $3.5 to $4.25 million.
Even though Heritage has not yet issued any formal news release about its upcoming auction, collectors already are inquiring about this internationally famous coin.
"We have received serious inquiries from dealers and collectors, including at least one collector from Asia and another from Europe, who are interested in acquiring the Olsen 1913 Liberty Head nickel," revealed Todd Imhof, Executive Vice President of Heritage."
Despite getting a green CAC sticker, it actually sold for less in the 2014 FUN Auction with a reported price of $3,290,000 - though that may well have been a sale back to the consigner.
This from Coin Update:
Hawaii Five-O 1913 Liberty Nickel Realizes $3,290,000
January 9, 2014 By Dennis Hengeveld
"The 2014 Florida United Numismatists Convention held in Orlando, Florida included an auction conducted by Heritage Auctions. While almost every type of United States coinage was offered at the auction there were a number of single coins that led the sale. One of these, no doubt, was the Olsen specimen of the 1913 Liberty Nickel. Graded PF-64 by NGC and considered to be second finest of just five specimens known to have been struck and known to exist, the coin realized a final price of $3,290,000 including buyer’s premium. The coin, which is famous for appearing in a 1973 episode of the series “Hawaii-Five-O” had last sold at public auction in January of 2010, when it realized $3,737,500." "
Here is "The Hawaii Five-O Coin" as I was able to photograph it prior to its getting the green CAC sticker:
And speaking of Hawaii Five-0, my own appearance on the present version of the show is being rebroadcast early tomorrow morning as a rerun on Cable Channel TNT:
FWIW, anyone interested in seeing the Hawaii Five-0 episode in which I appear, it is airing as a rerun on TNT March 29, 2018. It will be the second of three season four episodes that begin at 6:00 AM ET and continue until 9:00 AM ET. The show titled, "Broken", runs from 7:00 AM ET to 8:00 AM ET. Check your local listings for your own time zone, and if you are not up at that hour the DVR is your friend.
THU
MAR 29
7:00 AM Eastern Time
Kupouli 'la (Broken)(Season 4, Episode 6)
TNT
Five-0 investigates when a zombie-like man is shot on Halloween. The probe reveals that a mad man is conducting experiments on humans.
So, the lot sold for $9600 ($32.32 for each coin). The bid was a floor bid. Be interesting to see if these are marketed or if they were bought to hold intact.
"To attempt to follow out the law as to reverse and obverse would destroy the beauty of the piece."
I get where he's coming from. But the Mint paid dearly for that decision.
Pete
PCGS should make a 297 nickel MULTI holder.
Special label, too.
So THAT's why my low-MS 1883 NC nickel on Ebay sold for only 10 bucks!
Did I miss a summary of the condition of the bag'o'coins ?
Not really. They just made up the next sets of dies using a different reverse.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
I looked through most of them. Maybe 5% were MS64-65, 50% MS63, 20% MS60-62 and 25% were AU.