Liberty Nickel (1883-1913)
Mint Mark Information

The Liberty Nickel was introduced in 1883. It replaced the Shield Nickel, which many thought lacked artistic quality.

The obverse featured Lady Liberty wearing a small crown inscribed with the proclamation ‘LIBERTY”, encircled by 13 stars. The reverse pictured the Roman numeral V, (having a value of five) surrounded by a wreath.

Matching designs of I and III cents were developed at the time, but were not approved.

The first Liberty Nickels were distributed in the winter of 1883. Before the first thawing of spring, Mint officials were busy correcting an astounding oversight concerning the first batch of Liberty Nickels: no where on the coin was the word CENTS to be found!

Some unethical individuals saw an opportunity in this omission. They obtained CENT-less Liberty Nickels, gold plated them, as passed them off as five dollar gold coins. Since the coin was brand new and unfamiliar to the public, many fell victim to the scheme.

The gold plated V coin was dubbed the “Racketeer Nickel”. Today, an authentic Racketeer Nickel has a slight premium attached to it because of its fascinating historical connotation.

Regular production of the Liberty Nickel ended in 1912. Many years later, the coin collecting community was stunned to learn that five Liberty Nickels were struck clandestinely in 1913 at the Philadelphia Mint. Despite its dubious origin, the 1913 Liberty Nickel is one of the most famed coins in US numismatics, worth millions of dollars.

Liberty Nickel Obverse

Liberty Nickel Reverse

The Liberty Nickel Mint Mark is located on reverse at bottom Left. Only 1912 issues have a Mint Mark.

The following table lists the Mint Marks found on the Liberty Nickel:

There are only two Liberty Nickel dates that has a Mint Mark, the 1912-D and the 1912-S. All the other Liberty Nickels were produced at the Philadelphia Mint, which did not use Mint Marks until much later. The Liberty Nickel photos at right were provided courtesy of Goldberg Coins.

The San Francisco Mint struck only 238,000 nickels in 1912, making it by far the lowest mintage in the entire Liberty Nickel series.

As you might expect, the 1912-S is one of the key dates in the Liberty Nickel group. It has shown a very good history of price increases over a long period of time, well above that of most other United States collectible coins.

There are two other important Liberty Nickel key dates to keep in mind, and these are the 1885 and 1886. They too have collectors pushing and shoving against one another to get first crack at a nice example put up for sale.

This Liberty Head trio is within the affordability range of many collectors, yet pricey enough to insist on having examples certified by a reputable grading service. The links below were coded to bring up on your screen the Liberty Nickel key dates currently for sale on eBay that have been certified by PCGS, NGC, ICG, or ANACS. You need to click the "View All" links in the boxes below to get started.

A collector who stretches his or her budget to own an 1885, 1886, or 1912-S Liberty Nickel should not worry about someday suffering a permanent drastic drop in value. As long as there is a solid collector base, which is a safe bet, the long term outlook will always be rosy for these particular Liberty Nickels.

1885 Liberty Nickel

1886 Liberty Nickel

1912-S Liberty Nickel