Rare liberty head nickel sells for $4.56m at Philadelphia auction

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A rare 5¢ coin has sold for $4.56m at a Philadelphia auction.

The nickel is one of five of its kind, and is known as the Eliasberg 1913 Liberty Head nickel. That name comes from the man who bought the coin in 1948, financier Louis E Eliasberg, who eventually amassed one of the greatest coin collections in American history.

The Eliasberg 1913 Liberty Head nickel is considered to be the finest-grade example of its kind.

The new owner “now possesses one of the rarest, most valuable United States coins,” Brian Kendrella, the president of Stack’s Bowers Galleries, said. He noted that the coin is just one of three examples of the coin in private hands.

“The coin has a glittering mirror surface and is the only specimen with this characteristic. A small planchet lamination is at the rim,” a description of the coin on the Stack’s Bower’s Galleries website says.

“This 1913 Liberty Head nickel has been widely acclaimed and has been seen by more people and has been featured in more exhibitions than any other,” the description continues.

If $4.56 million is impressive, that figure is actually par for the course as far as high-grade coin auction prices go.

Just last year, a coin was auctioned off for a record-breaking $3.3m at a separate Stack’s Bowers Galleries auction, in conjunction with Sotheby’s, in Baltimore. That sale was a part of a larger auction that ultimately netted $106.7m in sales.

That coin was a rare 1804 silver dollar. The entire auction was reportedly record breaking for its kind.