History of the Liberty Nickel
Due to production issues with the Shield nickel, which was minted from 1866 - 1883, the mint began looking for a new design for the US five cent coin.
Charles Barber was the mint's cheif engraver and was given the task of coming up with a new design. He was instructed to include the classic head of the Roman goddess liberty on the obverse side, as well as the word liberty and the date. The Reverse side was to include a wreath of wheat, cotton, and corn around the Roman numeral 5, which is "V".
Large numbers of pattern coins were minted with one having the words "In God We Trust" on the reverse side. A former Union General, William S. Rosecrans, requested that one of the patterns have five equally spaced notches on the edge so the user could tell the denomination by feeling it, as many of his friends had been blinded in the war. At first, Barber's design was rejected because the law requires coins to have "United States of America" on the revrse side. Once that was corrected, the new design was approved and minting of the new Nickel design began in January 1883 and put out for circulation February 01. Proof Sheild Nickels continued to be struck until June 26, 1883.
The new Liberty head, or "V" Nickel as they were begun to be called, didn't come without issues. Early in the year, people noticed that the word "cents" didn't appear anywhere on the coin and with it being close to the same size as a $5 Gold coin, it would be easy to plate the coins with Gold and pass them off for $5.
This brings us to the story of Josh Tatum. Josh would reportedly go into a business and drop one of these Gold plated Nickels on the counter. The store clerk would assume that it was a $5 Gold coin and give him in change for $5.00. Josh was eventually caught but wasn't found guilty of a crime because he never claimed the coins were $5 Gold pieces. Josh Tatum was a deaf mute, so there was no way he could have told the clerks what they were. This story is where we get the phrase "I was only Joshing you" as Josh didn't really lie, but he did deceive many people.
The mint realized the design was a problem and quickly had the reverse side changed to include the word "cents" starting on June 26, 1883. This design continued until the end of the series in 1912.
By the end of 1884, over 32,000,000 new Nickels had been minted. This fact, along with a slow economic growth, created an abundance of coins. More than the market demanded.
With more Nickels circulating than was needed, the mint slowed production in 1885 to only 1,476,490 coins, down nearly 10,000,000 coins from the previous year. . This low mintage year helps make the 1885 Liberty Nickel a key date in the series.
The mint didn't return to full production of the Liberty Nickels until September of the following year, which made 1886 a low mintage year also.
By 1887 the mint, being at full production, couldn't keep up with demand for Nickels. Even producing over 15,000,000 coins, it was still short on fullfilling all orders.
1888 mintage was 10,720,483
1889 mintage was 15,881,361
1890 mintage was 16,259,272
1891 mintage was 16,834,350
1892 mintage was 11,699,642
1893 mintage was 13,370,195
1894 mintage was 5,413,132
1895 mintage was 9,979,884
1896 mintage was 8,842,920
1897 mintage was 20,426,797
1898 mintage was 12,530,292
1899 mintage was 26,027,000
1900 mintage was 27,253,733
1901 mintage was 26,478,228
1902 mintage was 31,487,581
1903 mintage was 28,004,930
1904 mintage was 21,403,167
1905 mintage was 29,825,124
1906 mintage was 38,612,000
1907 mintage was 39,213,325
1908 mintage was 22,684,557
1909 mintage was 11,585,763
1910 mintage was 30,166,948
1911 mintage was 39,557,639
1912 mintage was 26,234,569
1912-D mintage was 8,474,000
The 1912-S was the lowest mintage business strike coin of the series and the first US Nickel to be minted at the San Francisco mint.
1912-S mintage was 238,000
1913 Proof mintage was 5
All of the Liberty Nickels were minted at the Philadelphia mint, other than the 1912-D, which was minted at the Denver mint, and the 1912-S, which was minted in San Francisco.
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