John's Liberty 5c pieces
Private
By JTO
David W. Lange Overall Achievement Award
Updated:
7/25/2023
Views: 1,408
Our first coins to be commonly called nickels were not 5 or 3 cent pieces but the Flying Eagle cents. Because they contained 12% nickel they had a whitish appearance. So, they were referred to as nickels, nick’s or sundry other names.
As a youth collector, more than 50 years ago I remember sending off to a dealer from New York for 10 Liberty nickels. He advertised in Coinage magazine and to have 10, wow. The coins all were between Fair to a lofty high of roughly Good-6. But they were old and could not be found in pocket change. Oh, to own a specimen in Fine or XF, where I would be able to read the inscription and see liberty's face. But that would have to wait about 15 years. In the meantime I took the best Liberty nickel of the group and placed it into my Capitol Plastics 20th century type set. That hole was filled and I moved on.
As a "mature" (e.g. old) collector I sought to revisit some of my youthful visions and one was of a complete set of these nickel, but, in Mint State not a set of duplicates of early 1900's About-Good coins. And, here they are. Not to rank number 1, or even try, but to enjoy as clean legible and even beautiful (in their own way) nickels.
These were the first 5c Nickel coin to be minted outside of Philadelphia. That occurred in 1912. First in Denver and then in San Francisco the mint provided the first "branch mint" 5c nickels.
Older if not wiser I follow the fill in the key dates first then fill the rest of the holes. One of my first purchases was therefore the 1885 where I undershot badly at MS 62. An MS 63,4 or 5 would be more in keeping with the set. I will upgrade someday maybe but until then viva la 1886!
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John's Liberty 5c pieces
By JTO
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