Rare Liberty Head Nickel Could Sell For Millions
A lowly five-cent coin with a storied past could fetch as much as 5 million dollars at an auction in Chicago this spring.
The 1913 Liberty Head nickel was minted illegally, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner, deemed a fake, forgotten for decades and then proven to be the real thing. The coin is one of only five known to exist.
Douglas Mudd, curator of the Money Museum in Colorado, which is holding the coin, said, "A coin with a story and a rarity will trump everything else."
Conservative estimates put its value at around 2 million dollars. But Mudd thinks it could go for 4 or 5 million when it’s put on the auction block April 25th.
The nickel was one of five secretly cast by Samuel Brown at the Philadelphia mint in late 1912, the final year of its issue, with the year 1913 stamped on its face.
Years later, Mr. Brown offered them for sale and a North Carolina collector, George Walton, bought one for $3,750. The coin was with Walton when he was killed in a car accident in 1962, and was found among hundreds of others scattered at the crash site.
His sister was told the nickel was a fake and stashed it away in an envelope in a cupboard. It remained there for 30 years until her death in 1992, when experts confirmed it was indeed the long-lost fifth coin.
Four siblings who inherited the nickel will split the money equally after it is sold.
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