If you are one of the 5 known 1913 Liberty Head nickels in existence (two in museums and three in private collections), the answer is $3,737,500.  That is the price the coin previously owned by Egypt’s former King Farouk and Lakers owner Jerry Buss was sold for at an auction this Thursday.  See link with picture of the Liberty Head.

Buss paid $200,000 for the coin in 1978.  It will be interesting see if the value of the coin continues to appreciate at its approximate 9.58% annualized rate of return the next time it hits the auction block.

Here is an explanation by the Antique Trader Blog as to why collectors value the coin other than the pedigreed ownership of the coin:

“The U.S. Mint struck tens of millions of Liberty Head nickels from 1883 through 1912, but switched designs in 1913 to depict a Native American on the “head’s” side and a bison on the “tail’s” side. However, five nickels with the new date, 1913, but the old design of the symbolic Miss Liberty secretly were made at the Philadelphia Mint and eventually sold to collectors.”

And through such shenanigans at the US Mint is a nickel worth more than five cents minted.

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