Liberty Nickels Mintage

In all but a few cases, the mintages for the Liberty Head Nickel occurred in relatively high numbers. Most issues of the series with the exception of three remain relatively available for collectors. This is a contrast to the previous Shield Nickels, which saw mintage levels much more varied, including several years where coins were struck only in proof format.

1883 Liberty Nickel

Charles E. Barber designed the Liberty Nickel. His design featured the head of Liberty on the obverse. She wears a crown and has wheat and cotton woven into her hair with thirteen stars around. The reverse includes a large Roman numeral “V”, which was originally the only indication of the value of the coin. Part of the way through the first year of issue, the word “CENTS” was added. Remaining inscriptions are “United States of America” and “E Pluribus Unum”.

For the Liberty Nickel series:

  • There are 33 different regular issues of the series. This includes the “without cents” and “with cents” varieties of the first year.
  • Production took place at three different mints, although the Denver and San Francisco Mint only struck coins in the final year.
  • The average mintage for a regular issue is 18,242,754.
  • The lowest mintage occurs for the 1912-S Liberty Nickel at 238,000, while the highest mintage occurs for the 1911 Liberty Nickel at 39,557,639.
  • The 1913 Liberty Nickel, which was illegally minted, is believed to have an original mintage of 5.

Liberty Nickel Mintages

IssueMintage
1883 without cents5,474,300
1883 with cents16,026,200
188411,270,000
18851,473,300
18863,326,000
188715,260,692
188810,715,901
188915,878,025
189016,256,532
189116,832,000
189211,696,897
189313,368,000
18945,410,500
18959,977,822
18968,841,048
189720,426,797
189812,530,292
189926,027,000
190027,253,733
190126,478,228
190231,487,581
190328,004,930
190421,403,167
190529,825,124
190638,612,000
190739,213,325
190822,684,557
190911,585,763
191030,166,948
191139,557,639
191226,234,569
1912-D8,474,000
1912-S238,000
19135 known

Source: LibertyNickel.net