1894 5C MS65 Certification #07422661, PCGS #3855

CAC 0743 (Regency 37, March 2020, lot #95). “If you are someone who has been collecting Liberty Head nickels for a while, you will appreciate the WONDERFUL quality of this date run offered in this sale. Think of how many frogs you have discarded due to ugly toning, milk spots, bagmarks, etc, to get to the prince (or in this case PRINCESS). This piece is the CAT’S MEOW of 1894 nickels! It has everything going for it! Stunning luster is enhanced by beautiful cascading color in shades of rose, ice blue, tangerine and lemon yellow. Crisp, fully struck motifs. One small break in luster to the right of the lower portion of the V is all that is worth mentioning. PCGS 60; NGC 51, CAC 16. Of the 16 CAC specimens, I cannot imagine they are any nicer than this example! One sold in March 2019 for $1,140 and we think this coin should bring more! Bid liberally if you want to add this beauty to your set!“

Charles Morgan

The 1894 Liberty Nickel

The Liberty Nickel was produced from 1883 to 1912, and during this period the United States suffered no fewer than nine distinct economic downturns by most business-cycle counts. The Depression of 1882 to 1885 contributed to the low-mintage 1885 (#3846) and 1886 (#3847) issues. Later, the Panic of 1893 struck, set off in part by the collapse of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. It landed on a Treasury that was already bleeding gold. Under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890, the government had been buying silver with notes redeemable in gold, and holders increasingly chose gold. The panic accelerated a drain that had been building for years, and the repeal of the silver purchase clause in the fall of 1893 did not stop it.

To avoid a catastrophic government default, President Grover Cleveland’s administration turned to a private syndicate after Congress declined to authorize a gold bond issue. The syndicate was led by J.P. Morgan and August Belmont Jr., the U.S. agent for the Rothschild family, with the London Rothschild house also taking part. It supplied the Treasury with 3.5 million ounces of gold, valued at roughly $65 million and much of it sourced from Europe, in exchange for about $62 million in 30-year Treasury bonds. 

While this controversial arrangement helped prevent the crisis from becoming something far worse, it was fiercely debated in the newspapers and in Congress. The deal did not create the antisemitic Rothschild conspiracy theory, which predated it. It did give proponents of such theories a highly visible example of private financiers holding sway over the American economy, though historians debate how much it shaped those theories. 

For American coinage, these troubles show up unevenly. Silver coinage fell sharply from 1893 to 1895, and the 1893 Morgan Dollar mintages were very low, but the causes were mixed. The gold drain, the panic and the repeal of the silver purchase clause all played a part, and the 1893-S (#7226) was in fact struck in January, before the panic began. Other denominations in 1893 were mixed: cents, nickels and half dollars held steady or rose, while dimes fell by more than half and quarters dipped. By 1894, the ongoing depression had cut combined cent and nickel production by roughly 63%. The Philadelphia Mint struck just 5,410,500 Liberty Nickels in 1894, down from 13,368,000 the year before. It was the lowest mintage for the series since 1886.

 

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