1883 Liberty Nickel With Cents

The Liberty Head Nickel replaced the Shield Nickel in 1883 to modernize United States coinage. Charles E. Barber, the Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint, designed the coin. He featured a profile of Lady Liberty on the obverse and a Roman numeral V on the reverse. The Mint chose Barber because he held the official engraving position at the time. The design remained consistent for the duration of the series with one major exception. The original 1883 design lacked the word CENTS on the reverse, which led to a famous scam where people gold-plated the coins to pass them off as five-dollar gold pieces. The Mint quickly corrected this error by adding the word CENTS below the V. Production ended in 1913 when the Mint transitioned to the Buffalo Nickel design. While the Mint recorded only five 1913 Liberty Nickels, they never officially released them into circulation.

Focus on building a date set of common years like 1899, 1900, or 1905 to learn the series before spending more on keys. These coins often show heavy wear on Liberty's headband and the word LIBERTY, so buy coins with clear, readable lettering to maintain value. Watch out for altered-date coins where sellers modify a 1903 or 1908 nickel to look like an 1885 or 1886 key date. Always check the reverse for the word CENTS on any 1883 specimen to confirm you have the mass-produced version rather than the variety without it.

This series includes key dates — check individual coin pages for rarity details.