Nickels — Complete U.S. Five-Cent Piece Guide & Values

Value Overview by Series

Values shown are broad approximate ranges for common-date circulated examples within each series.

The History of the U.S. Nickel

The five-cent piece has an unusual history among American denominations: for its first several decades, the "five cent" value was represented by the silver half dime, not a nickel coin at all. The copper-nickel five-cent piece we now simply call "the nickel" didn't appear until 1866, with the Shield Nickel — introduced specifically to help address a wartime and postwar coin shortage, using a hard copper-nickel alloy (75% copper, 25% nickel) that has remained the denomination's standard composition ever since, aside from a wartime silver substitution during World War II. The half dime and the nickel actually circulated alongside each other for several years before the half dime was formally discontinued in 1873.

The Liberty Head ("V") Nickel followed in 1883, then the Buffalo Nickel (officially the Indian Head Nickel) in 1913, and finally the Jefferson Nickel in 1938 — which, in modified form, remains in production today. During World War II, from 1942 through 1945, nickel metal was needed for military applications, so the Mint temporarily replaced the nickel content in the five-cent piece with 35% silver (along with copper and manganese), creating the "War Nickels" that are easily identified by their large mint mark placed above Monticello's dome — the only U.S. coin series to place a mint mark on the obverse in this particular way for this reason.

Every U.S. Nickel Series

The nickel denomination encompasses four major design types since 1866, home to arguably the single most famous rarity in all of American coin collecting. Click any series below to shop current listings, and check back as we add dedicated date-by-date guides for each type.

The 1913 Liberty Head — America's Most Famous Nickel

No discussion of American nickels is complete without the 1913 Liberty Head — widely called "the most famous coin in the world," and for good reason. The Liberty Head design was officially discontinued at the end of 1912, replaced by the new Buffalo Nickel starting in 1913. Yet five nickels dated 1913 and bearing the old Liberty Head design exist — struck without any Mint authorization, almost certainly by Philadelphia Mint employee Samuel W. Brown, using genuine dies that should never have produced a 1913-dated coin at all.

Brown kept the coins secret until December 1919 — suspiciously close to the exact date the statute of limitations for prosecuting a Mint employee would have expired — before showing one publicly and placing a want-ad in a numismatic publication offering to buy examples for $500 each, a transparent cover story to explain his sudden possession of all five. One of the five, known as the "Walton specimen," has its own dramatic history: its owner, North Carolina numismatist George O. Walton, died in a 1962 car accident with the coin thrown from the wreckage; it was later examined by experts, incorrectly declared a counterfeit, and sat forgotten in his family's possession for over 40 years before being authenticated as genuine in 2003. It sold for $3,172,500 in 2013, and again for $4.2 million in 2022. The finest known example, the Eliasberg specimen, became the first coin in history to sell for over $1 million at public auction in 1996, and has since sold for as much as $5 million.

Collecting the Nickel Denomination

The nickel's relatively compact 160-year history — four major design types since 1866 — makes it an approachable denomination for type collectors, with common-date examples of every series widely available and generally affordable compared to silver denominations of the same eras. The Buffalo Nickel in particular rewards careful collectors: strike quality varied enormously across mints and years, and the famous 1937-D "Three-Legged" variety (a design error where part of the buffalo's front leg was accidentally polished away from the die) remains one of the most collected error coins in American numismatics.

For collectors interested in silver content, the 1942–1945 Jefferson "War Nickels" offer a distinctive entry point — struck in 35% silver rather than the standard copper-nickel alloy, they're easily identified by the large mint mark above Monticello and carry genuine melt value beyond their five-cent face value. PCGS and NGC both grade nickels across every series, and certification becomes essential for anything claiming to be a genuine 1913 Liberty Head given the extraordinary value and the small, well-documented population of only five authentic examples.

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