How would you feel if a coin you once owned and sold for $2,000 now commands nearly $2 million?
The unflappable Eric P. Newman responds, "I never look backwards." Plus, he points out, value has never been the overriding factor in his interest in a particular coin. The coin's historical importance is his forte.
To a certain extent Newman, now 90 years of age, discounts that he is inextricably a part of the legendary coin's history.
For seven years (1941 to 1948) he owned what is known today as the Eliasberg specimen of the 1913 Liberty Head 5-cent coin, which set a record March 9 when Dwight Manley purchased it at auction for $1.84 million.
Newman acquired the coin - the finest known 1913 Liberty Head 5-cent coin - in 1941 when he purchased Col. Edward H.R. Green's "Nickel Collection" from the executor of Green's estate.
Correspondence Newman made available May 16 to Coin World reveals that he, in fact, purchased all five of the 1913 Liberty Head nickels from the Green Estate in December 1941 in two separate transactions. For $2,000 he purchased approximately 600 5-cent coins that included "... all regular issues, patterns, mis-strikes and mutilations except three of the five 1913 Liberty Head nickels."
Newman instructed in his Dec. 13, 1941, letter: "When you remove from the little black case the two 1913 Liberty Head Nickels for me (as well as the three Buffalo Nickels in that case) I want two bright perfect specimens of the 1913 Liberty Head Nickels. With respect to the three excluded 1913 Liberty Head Nickels, I will buy them if you will agree to accept One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) for them."
Newman explains that after traveling by train to New York City to examine thousands of coins in the Green Collection, he had returned to St. Louis and discussed what he had seen with his friend and mentor, Burdette "B.G." Johnson, owner of the St. Louis Stamp & Coin Co.
Aware the coins' origin was a matter of conjecture, Newman recalls he and Johnson thought at one time the coins could be "fakes." He also noted the five 1913 Liberty Head 5-cent coins appeared to be have been struck on different qualities of planchets, possibly whatever was available to the person who struck them, and that they were of different conditions.
"We thought the two best ones were worth about $500 each," Newman recalls. "... We didn't feel the other three had that much value," he said, explaining the reason for separating them from his original offer and making a second offer.
Newman's offers and certified checks were accepted by the Green executors, and by letter dated Dec. 29, 1941, he was informed that the remaining three 1913 coins had been shipped to him.
The "little black case" contained slots for eight 5-cent coins. With the arrival of the three 1913 Liberty Head specimens, the eight coins were briefly reunited. They included the five 1913 Liberty Head 5-cent coins, a unique copper 1913 Indian Head 5-cent pattern, a 1913 Indian Head cent circulation strike and a copper-nickel pattern 1913 Indian Head 5-cent coin without initial F on the shoulder.
Newman still owns the black leather case, the 1913 Indian Head regular issue, and what he believes to be "the rarest of the bunch," the copper Indian Head pattern.
Researcher Don Taxay, writing in The U.S. Mint and Coinage, noted: "The unique copper trial piece of type 2 design (i.e. with modified five cents) is neither a trial piece nor made of copper. It was struck from an experimental alloy of ninety-five percent copper, five percent nickel and zinc and 'issued' in the original presentation case which held the five 1913 Liberty head nickels."
"Whatever it is, it's still unique and it's sitting there in the case," Newman said with a laugh.
Newman is believed to be the only person alive today who has seen all five of the legendary coins together.
Shortly after acquiring the five, he decided to keep the finest specimen for his collection and sell the rest. With the help of Johnson and Ohio dealer Jim Kelly, the other four were placed in collections.
Today, two of the 1913 Liberty Head nickels are in museum collections: the American Numismatic Association and the National Numismatic Collection of the Smithsonian Institution. One's whereabouts is unknown and two are in private collections. Both in private collections have established record prices when sold.
Although their existence has been known for 82 years, the origin of the five coins remains a mystery. No one knows precisely when or who made the five 1913 Liberty Head 5-cent coins. There are no U.S. Mint records that mention them.
The first hint that they may exist came in 1919 when Samuel W. Brown placed an advertisement in The Numismatist, a monthly journal published by the ANA. Brown offered to pay $500 - a princely sum - per coin for any Liberty Head nickels dated 1913.
The ad should have raised an eyebrow or two in collecting circles, but it didn't. The U.S. Mint had begun producing a new nickel, the Indian Head/Buffalo design, in early 1913 and stopped making the Liberty Head design in 1912.
Brown had become an employee of the U.S. Mint on Dec. 18, 1903, and served as assistant curator of the U.S. Mint's coin cabinet from 1904 to 1907. He left the Mint in November of 1913.
Collectors' first glimpse of a 1913 Liberty Head 5-cent coin came when Brown exhibited one at the 1920 ANA convention. In 1924 Philadelphia dealer August Wagner offered to sell the "complete set of five." It is unclear whether Wagner owned the coins or was acting as an agent for Brown. They are believed to have been purchased in 1924 by the millionaire collector Col. Edward H.R. Green.
Green died in 1936. In 1941 Newman purchased all five nickels from the Green Estate and sold four of the coins through St. Louis dealer Burdette Johnson. Newman kept the finest known specimen until 1948, when he sold it to dealer Abe Kosoff, who sold it to Baltimore banker and collector Louis E. Eliasberg Sr.
Newman never looked back. He used the money he obtained from selling the Liberty Head 5-cent coins to purchase other "more historic and important coins" for his collection.
