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1869 Pattern Five Cents Nickel, plain edge PCGS PR65CAM

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 2,800.00 USD
1869 Pattern Five Cents Nickel, plain edge PCGS PR65CAM
Similar to the obverse of the three-cent pattern, Judd-676, this time a five-cent piece in which Liberty is wearing a coronet with a star inscribed LIBERTY in raised letters. On the reverse, a large V in a laurel wreath connected at the top by a scroll inscribed IN GOD WE TRUST; a small Maltese cross in the folds.

Experiments were conducted April 15, 1869, with a new alloy proposed for small coins by a German chemist. Koulz, and recommended by a New York chemist, Krackowizer. This alloy was a mixture of 26% silver, 33% nickel and 41% copper.

As in 1868, the mint again prepared sets of patterns for the one, three and five cent minor coins which they sold for nine dollars a set.

Five complete proof sets of the regular denominations were also struck in aluminum. A busy year for patterns!
(#60909)<p><i>HW Bass Jr Col</i>