Spotting This Rare Nickel Will Earn You a Ton of Cash

Sep 11, 2023

Who hasn't dreamed of winning the lottery and all the things they’d do with such a huge chunk of change suddenly hitting their bank account? Even when the odds are stacked against us, the idea of a life-changing amount of cash is just too good to not at least give it a try. While waiting for the next big jackpot to go up for grabs, you might want to sort through the coins in your purse or change jar for a mother load of money sitting right under your nose.

Unlike certain Wisconsin state quarters and the 1943 copper penny, which you have better (but still pretty slim) chances of finding in your own coin purse, the 1913 Liberty Head V Nickel is even more rare — in fact, it's the rarest coin in the United States. But that's what also makes it worth a lot more money. We’re talking $4.5 million dollars, the amount one of these shiny nickels went for at auction in 2018.

According to the American Numismatic Association, the nickels have a pretty mysterious story behind them. The design (which you can see below) was supposed to be replaced with the Buffalo head nickel that year, but at least five of the liberty designs somehow made it through the minting process anyway. No one is really sure how or why, though.

Call us optimists, but we wonder if there aren't more than just the five known nickels with this design floating out there in the world. They didn't discover the first of them until 1919, six years after they were minted. Couldn't there easily be others out there that folks have just been too oblivious to notice? Checking your older family member's coin collections is probably the best place to start, especially if they have a big haul that could have this gem hiding within it.

Whether we find this rare nickel or any other coin worth more than its face value, we are definitely going to give all of the change we have rattling around in our homes a second look before spending them!

This article originally appeared on our sister site, FirstForWomen.com.