This Nickel Makes No Cents At All!

The 1913 Liberty Head Nickel is one of the 3 rarest and most desirable coin in the USA, the finest known example went under the hammer last Tuesday. It was passed in against an estimate of US$5 million (around A$6.3 million), which at first blush might indicate the upper end of the US market is easing off. Look into the story further and it becomes clear that this may not be the case at all.

The Eliasberg Nickel has traded no less than 5 times in the past decade - it made US$1.84 million in 1996 (a world record price for any coin at that time), and last traded for US$4.15 million in June 2005. It was bought by a syndicate of dealers, so if it had sold at the US$5 million estimate, it would have netted them a handy 20% gross within some 7 months - a nice little earn! Let's see if it pops up again in the near future.