The 1913 Liberty nickel: unauthorized production and identifiable survivors
The 1913 Liberty nickel combines an unauthorized issue with five identifiable surviving coins. The American Numismatic Association's 2014 exhibition notice explicitly describes the five pieces as unauthorized, made at Philadelphia with the date 1913, the year the Buffalo nickel replaced the old design. Its virtual museum catalogue is more cautious about the circumstances: how and why they were made remain uncertain. These are compatible findings. Identifying an irregular issue does not establish which person operated the press or the exact occasion on which the coins were struck.
Design approval for a Liberty nickel required more than access to dies and metal. The act of September 26, 1890 authorized the Mint director, with the Treasury secretary's approval, to arrange new designs. It assigned the engraver responsibility for working dies and set limits on redesign frequency. The provision also allowed distinguished outside artists to be engaged temporarily. That statute supplies the administrative framework behind an authorized design change. It does not name a maker of the five rare coins, and its existence cannot fill the gap in the documented circumstances of their production.
The public trail begins much later than the date on the metal. According to the ANA catalogue, Samuel W. Brown placed a notice in the December 1919 Numismatist offering $500 for a 1913 example. Brown had worked at the Philadelphia Mint. He subsequently announced that he had acquired five pieces, without revealing their source, and exhibited them at the 1920 ANA convention in Chicago. The museum describes his acquisition at the Mint as an assumption based on later research. The advertisement and exhibition establish a public appearance; they do not amount to a confession of manufacture.
The five eventually separated into individually traceable objects. The ANA records their sale by Philadelphia dealer August Wagner in 1924 and their later ownership by Eric P. Newman and Burdette Johnson, who sold them separately during the mid-1940s. Norweb, Eliasberg, Olsen, Walton, and McDermott became the familiar specimen names. Those names identify later owners and collecting histories, rather than five separately authorized Mint releases.
A Liberty nickel also has a physical identity that can be catalogued independently of its origin story. CoinWeek's guide to the Liberty Head design credits Charles E. Barber and lists a plain edge, a diameter of 21.2 millimeters, and a weight of 5 grams. The metal specification is 75% copper and 25% nickel. Section 16 of the 1873 coinage law prescribed that copper-nickel ratio for the five-cent piece. The legal composition helps identify the denomination, but it does not establish that a particular dated issue was authorized. The ANA's historical catalogue likewise distinguishes the existence of the five 1913 pieces from the unresolved circumstances of their manufacture.
Barber's design also makes the old name legible on the object. Liberty faces left wearing a coronet marked LIBERTY, surrounded by 13 stars with the date below. The reverse centers a large Roman V within a wreath, with CENTS beneath and E PLURIBUS UNUM above. CoinWeek's description ties the nickname V nickel to that numeral. Those features identify the familiar type without explaining how five examples came to bear the unexpected 1913 date.
The McDermott specimen preserves an unusually visible ownership history. The ANA's museum description says J. V. McDermott carried it in his pocket and displayed it informally at coin conventions. Its account connects those appearances with his habit of showing the coin at convention hotel bars. After McDermott died in 1966, Aubrey Bebee bought the coin at auction in 1967. Aubrey and Adeline Bebee donated it to the Money Museum in 1989. Handling and wear are part of that specimen's documented life after manufacture, rather than evidence that it entered normal circulation through a sanctioned issue.
The Walton specimen spent decades in a family closet after being misidentified as a counterfeit. George Walton died in a car accident in 1962 while traveling to a coin show. A PCGS announcement republished by CoinWeek records that the nickel was recovered in its custom holder but was subsequently dismissed as a fake. Walton's sister, Melva Givens, kept it in a closet at her home. In 2003 her children brought it to Baltimore during a search for the supposedly missing fifth coin. Specialists examined it and declared it genuine at the ANA convention.
The authentication was followed by another documented examination a decade later. PCGS's April 2013 announcement, carried by CoinWeek, reports another evaluation at its California headquarters on January 3, 2013, and a further examination at the Florida United Numismatists convention the following week. The announcement identifies the certified grade as PR63. A certificate for the Liberty nickel was affixed to Walton's custom holder, preserving the connection between the coin and the container recovered from the crash. The same release records a sale by Heritage Auctions on April 25, 2013, for $3,172,500. It names Jeff Garrett and Larry Lee as the winning bidders.
- American Numismatic Association — 2014 museum exhibition notice describing the unauthorized 1913 issue — www.money.org
- American Numismatic Association Money Museum — 1913 Liberty Head Nickel, virtual specimen catalogue — www.money.org
- United States Congress — Act of September 26, 1890, chapter 944, new coin designs — www.govinfo.gov
- United States Congress — Coinage Act of 1873 — www.govinfo.gov
- CoinWeek Notes — 1912-D Liberty Nickel: design and series specifications — coinweek.com
- CoinWeek, PCGS announcement — PCGS-Certified Walton 1913 Liberty Head Nickel Sells For $3.17 Million — coinweek.com