In the Treasure Corner - That 1913 Liberty Head Nickel

[danhughes]

They were never issued, the mint said. But Sam Brown had five of them. He said they were sold to him by various collectors around the country.

Right.

King Farouk owned two of them. One is in the Smithsonian. One of them was featured in an episode of Hawaii Five-O. And one was lost in a car wreck, and rediscovered over 40 years later.

Total value? About 20 million dollars. Not bad for twenty-five cents worth of coins that were never issued.

Hear the fascinating story now at http://thetreasurecorner.com.

[Digger_O'Dell]

Yep, knew all about those. Throughout US minting history there are many examples of unauthorized coinage that somehow "escaped" into the public.

1933 double eagle (last sold for $1.2M):

1804 draped bust dollar ($3-4M):

1870 S $3 gold piece (1 known, est value $2M):

1866 "no motto" dollar (2 known, $1M):

1974 Aluminum penny (1 known, many unaccounted for. $1M+):

1943 Bronze penny, 1944 steel penny ($1M+):

[danhughes]

Great research there, Digger!

Gotta ask - are you old enough to remember Digger O'Dell on the radio version of The Life of Riley? "I must be shoveling off..."

[Digger_O'Dell]

Great research there, Digger!

Gotta ask - are you old enough to remember Digger O'Dell on the radio version of The Life of Riley? "I must be shoveling off..."

Nope, not quite THAT old! But, I am old enough to remember the small town I grew up in could only get one radio station clearly, which was a German language AM station from in town. The stations from Milwaukee were pretty weak at best back then and needed a good antennae and a high spot to put the radio.