page_title: Liberty Head nickel
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Liberty Head nickel / Production
caption_attribution_description: Liberty Head nickel, 1912-D
context_page_description: The Liberty Head nickel, sometimes referred to as the V nickel because of its reverse design, is an American five-cent piece. It was struck for circulation from 1883 until 1912, with at least five pieces being surreptitiously struck dated 1913. The obverse features a left-facing image of the goddess of Liberty.
  The original copper–nickel five-cent piece, the Shield nickel, had longstanding production problems, and in the early 1880s, the United States Mint was looking to replace it. Mint Chief Engraver Charles Barber was instructed to prepare designs for proposed one-, three-, and five-cent pieces, which were to bear similar designs. Only the new five-cent piece was approved, and went into production in 1883. For almost thirty years large quantities of coin of this design were produced to meet commercial demand, especially as coin-operated machines became increasingly popular.
  Beginning in 1911, the Mint began work to replace the Liberty head design, and a new design, which became known as the Buffalo nickel, went into production in February 1913. Although no 1913 Liberty head nickels were officially struck, five are known to exist.
context_section_description: After heavy mintages of the nickel in 1883 and 1884, production was much lower in 1885 and 1886.  This was due to an economic downturn which lowered demand for the coins.  The 1886 production was also depressed by the Treasury's decision to reissue large numbers of worn minor coins.  It was not until September 1886 that the Mint resumed full production of the coin.  By 1887, however, the Mint was overwhelmed by orders, melting down large quantities of older copper-nickel coins to meet the demand.  Despite these efforts, the Mint was forced to return many orders unfilled.  Demand remained strong until 1894, when the Mint temporarily suspended production as it had accumulated a surplus during the Panic of 1893.
  The Coinage Act of 1890 retired a number of obsolete denominations, including the three-cent piece.  Another Act of Congress, also enacted on September 26, 1890 required that coinage designs not be changed until they had been in use 25 years, unless Congress authorized the change.  However, the second act indicated that nothing in the law was to prevent the redesign of the current five-cent piece and silver dollar "as soon as practicable after the passage of this act".  In 1896, pattern nickels were struck for the first time since 1885, when experimental, holed coins had been tested.  The 1896 pieces, which  featured a simple shield with arrows crossed behind it, were struck in response to a resolution of the House of Representatives asking the Secretary of the Treasury to report to it on the advantages and disadvantages of using various alloys in coinage.  Pattern nickels would not be struck again until 1909.
  The turn of the century saw unprecedented demand for nickels, due to a booming economy and the use of nickels in coin-operated machines.  In 1900, Mint Director George E. Roberts called on Congress to grant the Mint a larger appropriation to purchase base metals, allowing for greater production of nickels and cents.  The same year, the design was modified slightly, lengthening some of the leaves on the reverse.  This change occurred with the introduction of a new hub, from which coining dies were made.  Demand for the coins remained heavy; in March 1911, Mehl's Numismatic Monthly reported that the Mint was working twenty-four hours a day to produce cents and nickels, and even so was failing to satisfy demand.
  Mint directors, in their annual reports, had long called for the authority to strike cents and nickels at all mints; by law they could then only be struck at Philadelphia.  On April 24, 1906, this restriction was removed, although the first base metal coins, cents in both cases, were not struck at  San Francisco until 1908  and Denver until 1911.  In 1912, nickels were coined for the first time at each of the two branch mints.  The 1912-S (for San Francisco) nickel was not struck until Christmas Eve, and was only struck for four business days.  A 1912-S nickel, one of the first forty coined, was used by former San Francisco Mayor James D. Phelan to pay the first fare on the city's first streetcar on December 28, 1912.  Excluding the 1913 nickel, the 1912-S, with only 238,000 struck, is by far the rarest in the series.
caption: 1912-D nickel; the mintmark D for Denver is found at lower left, by the dot.
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