# One Million bounty for a rare nickel... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 27, 2003, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851 "2003-05-27T19:33:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851/1 "2003-05-27T19:33:30Z")
**Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s time to dump out your change jar** [From Fark](http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/105402781367231.xml) > [@](#): > > Concord, N.H.- A nationwide bounty hunt is under way - with a $1 million reward. The target: a 90-year-old nickel. > > After being born of questionable, some say clandestine, circumstances, five 1913 Liberty Head nickels surfaced in the 1920s. Two are in private collections, two are in museums, but the whereabouts of the fifth have confounded collectors for years. > > “There’s a little bit of gimmick to it,” concedes Paul Montgomery, president of Bowers and Merena Galleries of Wolfeboro, N.H., which is offering the reward. “But it’s all about trying to find the coin.” > > The Liberty Head Nickel was minted from 1883 to 1912, when it was replaced by the Indian or Buffalo Nickel. > > Five Liberty nickels, however, were minted illegally in 1913, possibly by a mint official. They were never placed into circulation and for many years were considered illegal to own because they were not a regular issue. > > In 1996, Bowers and Merena auctioned one of the 1913 nickels for $1.4 million, the first coin to sell for more than $1 million. It is because of that price that the company is offering at least $1 million for the missing nickel. > > As one story goes, the coin may have been owned by a North Carolina dealer killed in a car crash in 1962. Part of the mystery is a theory that the dealer was carrying the coin to a buyer. > > People have searched the roadside, said Lawrence Lee, curator of the American Numismatic Association Money Museum, which owns one of the nickels. > > Beth Deisher, editor of Coin World magazine in Sidney, Ohio, said a nickel was recovered from the wreckage, but it was not one of the original five. Good luck and happy hunting! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851/2 "2003-05-27T20:08:56Z")
Hmmmm. . . Thirty years ago, an episode of “Hawaii Five-O” dealt with the theft of one of the 1913 Liberty nickels. The name of the episode: “The $100,000 Nickel.” That’s about an annual appreciation rate (compounded) of about 8% per year. Not a bad investment. BTW, the 1883 Liberty Nickel did not include the word “cents” on the back, only a Roman numeral “V.” Some people were rumored to have gold- (or brass-) plated them and passed them off as 5 _dollar_ pieces. I thought it was just a story until someone showed me one. This person was quite proud of having acquired this 5-dollar gold piece. I didn’t have the heart to tell him. . . ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851/3 "2003-05-27T20:14:05Z")
I’ve got an 1883 nickel with just a bit of gold paint left over. I do not have any coins worth more then $100 sadly. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851/4 "2003-05-27T20:18:05Z")
> [@](#): > > BTW, the 1883 Liberty Nickel did not include the word “cents” on the back, only a Roman numeral “V.” Some people were rumored to have gold- (or brass-) plated them and passed them off as 5 dollar pieces. I thought it was just a story until someone showed me one. This person was quite proud of having acquired this 5-dollar gold piece. I didn’t have the heart to tell him. . . That paragon of historical research and accuracy, The History Channel, says that the scam was concocted by a deaf-mute named Joshua Something-or-other. When caught, his defense was that he never _asked_ for change for a five-dollar gold piece; he just handed clerks the five-cent coin (brushed with gold dust) and the clerks gave him back more money. Therefore, he never “counterfieted” because he never claimed the coins were anything but five-cent pieces. THC says that his name lives on in the term “joshing”. (Of course, this is the same series that said we got the term “doozy” from the Deusenberg automobile.) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851/5 "2003-05-27T22:40:26Z")
We only got 20-30 calls today with people who thought they might have the coin. A-r-r-r-g-g-h-h-!!! It’s a stupid publicity stunt. The fifth specimen of this nickel possibly still exists, but it never got into circulation. It possibly resides in some old-time collection. But if you have a few “V:” nickels that came down through the family,… IT AIN"T THERE. And please don’t tell me that you have an 1883 nickel, which is older, so it outta be worth more. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851/6 "2003-05-27T23:30:08Z")
Out of curiousity, has anyone traced the route of the 5 1913 Liberty nickles? As I recall, it went from Mint-Mint employee-Col. Edward Green, whose heirs then sold the coins individually. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2003, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851/7 "2003-05-27T23:42:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > \*\*And please don’t tell me that you have an 1883 nickel, which is older, so it outta be worth more. \*\* I’ve got a halfpenny from 1723. That’s three times as old so it should be worth three million! Still, seeing as it’s only 1/10th the value of a nickel, I’ll let it go for the bargain price of $300,000. Any takers? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2003, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851/8 "2003-05-28T15:29:03Z")
Just in case anyone’s interested–and hasn’t already looked it up–here’s some info on the nickel: [http://www.libertynickels.org/1913liberty.php?PHPSESSID=937cf110fc16ca5dd9021c5618aeefa6&page=dateinfo&name=1913](http://www.libertynickels.org/1913liberty.php?PHPSESSID=937cf110fc16ca5dd9021c5618aeefa6&page=dateinfo&name=1913) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851/9 "2003-07-30T15:34:31Z")
[http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=757&e=10&u=/ap/20030730/ap\_on\_re\_us/million\_dollar\_nickel](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=757&e=10&u=/ap/20030730/ap_on_re_us/million_dollar_nickel) ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2003, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-million-bounty-for-a-rare-nickel/177851/10 "2003-07-30T16:02:53Z")
What a rip-off. They’re offering a measly $1 million for a coin that could be worth $1.4 million (per the similar one auctioned off in 1996)? If I would have found it I’d stick 'er on eBay.