Liberty Head (1883-1913)

The Liberty Head (or "V") Nickel was introduced in 1883 and used a new, less intricate design featuring a bust of Liberty and a simple Roman number "V" with wreath on the reverse. The new design was intended to avoid production issues that had plagued the Shield Nickel, but its introduction created a new controversy--early examples lacked the word "Cents" on the reverse, and were similar in size and design to the gold $5 piece at the time. This resulted in a large number of gold-plated counterfeits, commonly referred to as "Rackateer Nickels." This led to the addition of the word "Cents" midway through production in 1883. Production of the Liberty Head Nickel continued until 1912, although a handful of illegally struck 1913 examples are known to exist.