AR / ITEM / 00100424
1913 Liberty Head Nickel, Walton Specimen
One of five 1913 Liberty Head nickels, wrongly declared a fake in 1963 and hidden in a closet for forty years before being authenticated in 2003.
- Date
- Dated 1913
- Catalogue
- 1913 Liberty Head nickel
Plate not recorded
No photograph with documented reuse rights is held for this record.
Record
The five known 1913 Liberty Head nickels surfaced in 1920 with the former Mint employee Samuel Brown. Walton bought this one from the dealers Newman and Johnson in 1945 for about $3,750. He died in a car crash on 9 March 1962 on the way to a coin show; when his heirs consigned his coins in 1963 the auction house declared this one not genuine and returned it. In July 2003 the American Numismatic Association offered a reward to find it for a display of all five; the family brought it to the ANA convention in Baltimore, where PCGS experts confirmed it. Heritage sold it in April 2013 for $3,172,500 to Jeff Garrett and Larry Lee, who sold it privately in June 2018 to Martin Burns and Ron Firman; it has since been on display at the ANA museum.
- Culture
- American
- Medium
- Copper-nickel
- Origin
- United States
In the Tapestry
- Made by · 1913
- United States MintAmedium confidence
- Exhibited at · 2003, from 2018
- American Numismatic AssociationAmedium confidence
- Associated with · 2003
- Professional Coin Grading ServiceAmedium confidence
- Associated with · 2013
- Heritage AuctionsAmedium confidence
Provenance and history
1945
Bought by George O. Walton from Newman and JohnsonA
For about $3,750.
1963
Declared not genuine at auction and returned to Walton's heirsA
July 2003
Authenticated at the ANA convention in BaltimoreA
Compared with the other four by PCGS experts.
April 2013
Sold at Heritage Auctions for $3,172,500A
To Jeff Garrett and Larry Lee.
June 2018
Sold privately to Martin Burns and Ron FirmanA
From July 2018
Placed on display at the ANA museumA
Sources
- A
Wikipedia, '1913 Liberty Head nickel'
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