1913 Liberty Head Nickel

I'm sure by now that most everyone knows about the 1913 Liberty Head nickle that is to be auctioned at next month's Heritage Fun auction.

Everytime I read about one of these five coins I can't help but wonder how in the world they came to be so darn valuable. In a world where many fantastically rare coins are massively devalued if cleaned improperly, or scratched lightly, we have given the absolute pillar of rarity value to five coins that were not even genuine issues!

The 1913 Liberty Head nickel brought a bid of over a million dollars almost a quarter of a century ago and now they are saying that one of these five will likely be the first 10 million dollar coin! The exact same thing is true with the #2 top valued coin...the 1804 silver dollar. It's an unofficial re-strike done years later...yet once again, the world is goo goo over this fake issue.

All I can say is that if professional numismatists were as stingy and definitive about real rarity as they are about grading, then the handful of 100% genuine, Carson City rarities that we CC enthusiasts all know and cherish, are very greatly undervalued.

Belay Off

Here Here Belay, I totally agree with you. If this coin was supposedly made with out authorization of the mint how come it has not been confiscated like the 10 1933 double eagles. I would rather have a coin from Carson City, no matter the price.

Loosechange
Mark Archambault
rm#0335

I have never understood the intrigue of these. The pop is the only thing that I can see draws people in. I had the FUN catalog out the other night and was looking at the nickel and the following write up when a friend showed up. We were talking and I said why dont you buy that and said it started at $2,000,000. He first response was, "for that?" second comment was "it isn't even old" He knows nothing about coins but I have to agree with what he said.

Why don't we go find an unused coin press, say the old # 1 machine still sitting in the old Carson City mint, fire it up when no one is around, and then make a half dozen 1879-CC dimes, a few 1875-CC quarters with Arrows, and maybe even a couple 1889-CC $10 Eagles to really stir up the pot.

To make things appear original, we can melt down real CC dimes, CC quarters and an CC eagle or two using coins from immediately adjacent years to our historically unknown dates. The coin planchets will then be made using original metal.

We then approach a big dealer or auction house once every few years to set up the historic release of one or two coins at a time, using a different alias each time and swearing the marketing agency to confidentiality (which they willbe glad to do in order to add more intrigue and ultimately ramp up the prices and, in turn, their fees).

We make sure to hold on to half of the coins that we have minted because even if/when they eventually figure out that the released coins are all frauds, they will eventually be accepted into numismatics in exactly the same way as the 1913 Liberty Head nickels.

Perhaps in twenty years or so, they will be touted as "The Pinnicle of American Numismatics" or some similar BS dreamed up by some marketing guy. By then, they will all have names like The unique "Blu62Vette Example", or the famous "Belay Off Specimen".

We won't care what they call them since we'll be selling off our few remaining coins later for millions of dollars. All it takes is a little patience and some good marketing.

Belay Off... His Rocker

I, for one, am glad that Carson City coins are undervalued. Please let me collect as many as I can before you make the rest of the numismatic world realize the error of their ways. In the meantime, they can spend all the money they want on these nickels.

Decline Don

The 1913 Nickel at Heritage is at the crossroads of ego and high wealth. It is unfortunate that only high value (i.e. high commissioned) coins receive attention.