Origin
The Indian Head (Buffalo) nickel was introduced in February 1913, replacing the Liberty Head design. These were the first official strikings of nickels in 1913; the United States Mint's official records do not record any Liberty Head nickels produced that year. Liberty Head nickels dated 1913 first came to the attention of the numismatic community in 1920. All five were in the possession of Samuel Brown, a numismatist who attended the American Numismatic Association's annual convention and displayed the coins there. Brown had previously placed an advertisement in The Numismatist in December 1919 seeking information on these coins and offering to pay US$500 for each. Ostensibly, the coins had been purchased as a result of this offer. However, Samuel Brown had been a Mint employee in 1913, and many numismatic historians have concluded that he was therefore responsible for striking the coins himself and then removing them from the Mint. If true, this was not a unique occurrence; such clandestine strikes were actually quite common in the 19th century, with the Class II and III 1804 silver dollars being perhaps the best-known instance. Other numismatic authorities, such as Q. David Bowers, have questioned this scenario, and pointed out that there are several methods by which the coins could have been legitimately produced. Bowers suggests, for instance, that they may have been lawfully issued by the Mint's Medal Department "for cabinet purposes", or that they could be trial pieces struck in late 1912 to test the following year's new coinage dies. However, Bowers did not entirely discount the private minting theory.
Read more about this topic: 1913 Liberty Head Nickel
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