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Now a little History |  |
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When the 1883 Liberty nickel first circulated it was a year for coinage change for this particular denomination.
Half dimes were phased out in 1873.
Half dimes went through a design change in 1859-60, as the "United States of America" inscription was moved from the back of the coin to the face of the coin.
There exist some pattern half dime pieces of the same years which do not bear our nation's identity as they were only transitional pieces not made for circulation. During the year of 1866, the first US Nickels were minted. The half dimes were still being minted, so there were dual coins being circulated by the mint, both worth the same amount but with a different title. When there is a design change there are normally dual designs in circulation, as one type is phased out and the other is phased in, but it's not normal for the mint to produce different designs of the same denomination for general circulation at the same time. Normally these changes occur within a year or two, but in this case there were dual mintages from 1866-73 (a seven year period). The shield nickel was minted until 1883 and in that year the design was changed to the "liberty head type." There have been many minor design changes through out US coin history. Some of these account for great rarities. The major designs occur when the whole design of the coin is altered or even discontinued. |
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| The first new nickel of 1883 had a V on the reverse (representing Roman Numeral five) but the word "cents" was left off. Some of these first nickels were gold-plated and passed as $5 gold pieces which were in circulation at the time. Later in the year the word "cents" was added to discourage this fraudulent practice. |  |
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| Counterfeits of gold coins also exist but they are valueless. The undiscerning sometimes pay great amounts of money and spend lots of time and energy in pursuit of such pieces only to find out later that they have been duped. | ||
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