1913 Liberty Head Nickel - Walton Specimen

Walton Specimen

The Walton specimen is the most elusive of the five 1913 Liberty Head nickels; for over 40 years, its whereabouts were unknown and it was believed to have been lost. George O. Walton, for whom the specimen is named, purchased it from Newman and Johnson in 1945 for approximately US$3,750, equal to $48,410 today. On March 9, 1962, Walton died in a car crash en route to a coin show. He had promised the show's promoters that he would exhibit the 1913 Liberty Head nickel there, so it was assumed to have been among the coins in his possession when he died. A quarter-million dollars worth of coins were recovered from the crash site, and among them was the 1913 Liberty nickel in a custom-made holder. However, when his heirs later submitted Walton's coins for a 1963 public auction, the nickel was returned because the auction house mistakenly thought it was not genuine. The coin remained in the possession of Walton's heirs, kept in a strongbox on the floor of a closet in his sister's home for over 40 years. In July 2003, the American Numismatic Association arranged to exhibit the four specimens whose whereabouts were known. As a publicity stunt, public relations consultant and former ANA Governor, Donn Pearlman, launched a nationwide hunt for the missing fifth specimen. He arranged with Bowers and Merena auction house (at the time a division of Collectors Universe, Inc.) to offer a minimum US$1 million to purchase the coin or as a guarantee for consigning it to one of their public auctions. In addition, a US$10,000 reward was offered just for letting representatives of Bowers and Merena be the first to see the genuine, missing fifth specimen. After learning about the reward, the Walton heirs brought their coin to the ANA convention in Baltimore where expert authenticators from Professional Coin Grading Service examined it at length, compared it to the other four known specimens and determined that, in fact, the Walton specimen was genuine. The coin is still owned by the Walton heirs and is on loan to the American Numismatic Association's Edward C. Rochette Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado.