Liberty Head Nickel Coins USA

In 1881, Mint Superintendent James Ross Snowden decided to unify the designs of the cent, three cent nickel, and five cent nickel. Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber created Liberty Head designs for all three denominations, and patterns were struck later that year. However, Snowden was unable to implement his desired design alterations for the cent and three cent nickel, so only the five cent nickel design ever saw full production.

Liberty Head nickels were struck every year from 1883 to 1912. Most were struck at the main U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, but in 1912 the Denver and San Francisco mints also produced the coins. These can be distinguished from the Philadelphia-mint strikes by a small D or S mint mark on the reverse, which is located below the lower left dot. In 1913, the Liberty Head nickel was superseded by James Earle Fraser's new design: the Indian Head (Buffalo) nickel.

In early 1883, the Liberty Head nickel was first struck for circulation. The first 5.4 million pieces struck contained the Roman numeral V on the reverse, but did not contain the word "CENTS". Con artists quickly noted this, as well as the fact that the coin was roughly the same size as a five-dollar gold coin, and began gold-plating the new nickels and attempting to pass them as gold pieces. According to numismatic legend, one of the perpetrators of this fraud was a deaf-mute named Josh Tatum, whose name is allegedly the origin of the verb "joshing". Supposedly, Tatum was not convicted because, being unable to speak, he did not actually make any fraudulent verbal claims regarding the coins, but merely accepted the change handed to him by the storekeeper . This tale, however, may be apocryphal. Whatever the truth of the case, what is known is that the Mint decided to add the word "CENTS" to the reverse design of the Liberty Head nickel in the middle of the 1883 striking , and this change remained until the coin was discontinued.