Wanted: Nickel With A $1M Price On Its Head

Independent (UK) ^ | 5-31-2003 | David Usborne

[blam]

Wanted: nickel with a $1m price on its head

By David Usborne in New York
31 May 2003

Americans are being asked to rummage in their attics and pockets for a single coin, which, should they find it, could make them very wealthy indeed. The Liberty Head Nickel may have a face value of only five cents, but it could be worth US$1m (about £610,000).

A New Hampshire gallery, Bowers and Merena, which specialises in precious coins, has issued a $1m reward for the nickel, one of only five minted 90 years ago under clandestine circumstances.

From 1883 until 1912, the US mint produced countless Liberty Head nickels before it was retired in favour of another version. But in 1913, a mint official, Samuel Brown, secretly made five more of the coins under the cover of darkness.

The quintet of coins surfaced in the Twenties and a market was born. King Farouk of Egypt owned one. Another made an appearance on the TV police series Hawaii 5-O.

Four of the coins have been accounted for and are either in museums or private collections. But collectors have long dreamt of finding the fifth. The best theory is that it was owned by a North Carolina dealer killed in a car crash in 1962 while carrying the coin. Treasure-hunters scoured the site without finding the nickel.

Bowers and Merena admitted the reward was a "bit of a gimmick". But its president, Paul Montgomery. said it was "all about trying to find the coin". And the $1m sum is not entirely stupid. His gallery auctioned one of the five nickels in 1996 for $1.4m.

[blam]

Hmmm. I save dimes and quarters. No nickels.

[therut]

I haven't looked into my families loot in a while although I have a list---I think I will look tonight. But what I want to know is ----if your family members did not turn in all the pure gold coins is you family outlaw??? I already know nobody care about confederate money but how about the GOLD!!!

[Freedom4US]

I remember similar ads in magazines and comic books as a kid, also for copper 1943 Lincoln Cents. The ads were used as 'teasers' to get people interested inspecting their coinage, and possibly buying a few Indian head pennies from the companies running them. Typically, pennies are bought by the pound for, well, pennies, and then sold in lots of 5 or more for high percentage markups. Never buy a coin from a magazine (other than a coin magazine!) or Sunday supplements in the newspaper, TV ads, Radio or anything of the sort.

Anyone interested in the history of the United States should own at least a few coins from the earlier years, the gold and silver coinage in particular was of superior design and craftsmanship and also represents money that stands by itself rather than as an artificial construct.

(Plus, they just look cool!) Particularly impressive is a pile of coins, and hearing them jingle as modern slug-money does not.

[blam]

"But what I want to know is ----if your family members did not turn in all the pure gold coins is you family outlaw???"

No. It is legal to have gold. My preference is the Kruggerand.