Liberty V Nickels With Cents (1883-1912)
Designed by Charles Barber the Liberty Nickel was produced for circulation between 1883 and 1912. The coin features a portrait of Liberty on the obverse encircled with thirteen stars. The reverse has the Roman numeral V for five encircled by a wreath of corn, wheat, maple and oak. The word CENTS appears at the bottom to thwart those that attempted to pass off plated “No Cent” examples as five dollar gold coins. The entire series was produced at the Philadelphia Mint save the final year that saw coins struck in small quantities at both Denver and San Francisco facilities. These dates along with the 1885 and 1886 are the keys to the complete set. Barber’s pedestrian design was eventually replaced by the Buffalo nickel in 1913. A few Liberty examples were clandestinely struck that year, but were not intended for circulation and remain extremely rare with just five known.
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