Expert: Joe Hylas - 11/15/2005

Question
I have 3 coins, dated 1906, 1907, 1912. The face of coin has a woman's head facing left and there are 13 stars surrounding the coin with the date at the bottom. On the back of the coin it says United States of America with a crescent wreath and a Roman numerial V in the center of the coin and the word Cents at the bottom of the coin. Can you tell me anything about this coin; value, etc? The coin is quite thin, but is about the diameter of a current nickel. Thank you very much, Christine

Answer
Hi Christine,

You are right on the money!  The V is the Roman numeral for 5  These are known as Liberty Nickels from 1883 through 1912 right before the Buffalo Nickels and Jefferson Nickels which followed.

In used condition, they retail for about $1 each.  It is a shame that you didn't have a 1913 Liberty Nickel.  They were not officially minted however late one night in 1913, a couple of mint employees thought it would be fun to have some dated 1913, so the struck a few.  As of this this date 5 are known to exist and that may be all there are, but you never know.  The fifth one was just authenticated recently and sold for a few million dollars to a private collector.

Anyway, I hope I have helped.

Regards,
Joe Hylas