Liberty Nickel Collector Society

In the world of coin collecting, denominations which are popular seem to coincide with denominations that are used for commerce. Obviously, the most common denomination is the cent, and collecting collecting this denomination is #1 among collectors (easily due to the low cost and ease of finding coins). Looking at all series, each seems to have a specific reason to collect them. After cents, you have dollars. Specifically Morgans as most dates are easy to find due to the massive number of available coins from the GSA sales, their large size, composition consisting of silver and dates minted to include the 19th century. Going down the list we finally end up with Nickels.

In terms of ranking nickels, you have Buffalo nickels leading the list. This coin is considered the most "American" coin the US Mint has ever produced. Second would be Jefferson's, due to ease of finding and low cost (almost all can be found in change, thus have a cost of face value). Shield nickels would be third since they are the oldest of all nickels. This leads us to the forgotten series, Liberty Nickels, If you look at a Red Book, you will not find any varieties listed. This would seem to be the only series listed with no varieties deemed worthy of collecting. Simply just a series that happened to be minted.

Liberty Nickels. What this series does have, that no other series has, is a true king coin. The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is one of the top three coins, if not number one, of all coins collected. However, for the collecting world this distinction does not seem to trickle down the the rest of the series. This collector is an exception, the sale of the Olsen specimen in 1993 followed up by the Eliasberg sale in 1996 made this my favorite series.

Since this time, I have always loved this series. I started this set in 2009 with the idea of completing a circulated set. The set was 100% complete in 2010 with an average grade of 42.2. Since then, I have slowly been upgrading each slot. The first goal was to have all coins in mint state. Once this was achieved, the goal was to have a minimum of MS64 for each slot. When that goal was achieved, a grade of MS65 or better was set. With this goal now achieved, I will now slowly start the process of upgrading to MS66 or better.

In 2000, I created a web site devoted to the series. Go to The Liberty Nickel Collector Society to learn more about this historical and fun to collect series.