V nickels are Liberty Head nickels with a Roman five on the reverse
Liberty Head nickels, 1883 through 1912, show a Roman V. The first 1883 reverse left off the word CENTS. A gold-colored one is plated, not a gold coin.
Turn a V nickel over before you look up the date. The reverse is a Roman V inside a wreath. That is a Liberty Head nickel, Charles E. Barber's design, struck for circulation from 1883 through 1912. If the back is a bison, you want the Buffalo nickel instead. If the back is a shield, that is the Shield nickel, the coin this one replaced. Three nickels, three pages.
Read the word under the wreath
1883 started without CENTS. The V was supposed to be enough. Later that year the Mint added CENTS under the wreath. PCGS CoinFacts keeps the no-CENTS coins as their own type, and the 1883 no-CENTS story is the short history. The Liberty Head nickel page leaves the pamphlet's mixed 1883 total alone and puts values on the NGC split. Do not add the two types together and call it one mintage.
Denver and San Francisco show up only in 1912. Anything earlier with a D or an S is not this series.
Gold color means somebody plated it
The no-CENTS nickel was close enough to a half eagle that people gold-plated examples and tried to pass them. PCGS calls those racketeer nickels alterations. A yellow V nickel in a drawer is a plated five-cent coin. It is not a pattern, and it is not a gold issue of the Mint. The famous con-man anecdote that rides along with this story is not something this note will repeat as fact.
These are cupronickel, the same five-cent alloy as the Buffalo that followed, not the silver Jefferson of the 1940s.
Five 1913 Liberty Head pieces are known. PCGS lists the 1913 as that rarity. It is not a row you should expect on the series chart, and it is not the coin at the bottom of a coffee can. For an ordinary date, the dealer directory is where you get a second look at CENTS. You do not need to polish the wreath first.
People Also Ask
What does the V on the back stand for?
Five. It is a Liberty Head nickel, also called a V nickel, struck for circulation from 1883 through 1912. Charles E. Barber designed it. The Roman numeral is the denomination.
Why do some 1883 nickels lack the word CENTS?
The first 1883 reverse had a V and no CENTS. The Mint added CENTS later that year. It is a legend change, not a mint error.
I found one that looks gold. Is it a pattern?
Almost certainly not. Gold-plated 1883 no-CENTS nickels are the old racketeer alteration, made to pass as a five-dollar gold piece. PCGS treats them as altered coins. Plating is damage, not a mint product.
Could a normal collection include a 1913 Liberty Head nickel?
No. PCGS CoinFacts treats the 1913 as a clandestine five-piece proof rarity. It is not a business-strike row on this site's series page, and it is not a coin that turns up in a jar of V nickels.